The forty days of Lent (meaning "lengthen") are meant to be a reminder of the 40 days of rain during Noah's flood, in which God cleansed the world; the 40 years of desert wandering, in which God purified Israel; the 40 days of Jesus' fasting in the desert in preparation for his ministry.
There are several traditional ways that these are remembered: fasting, repentance and giving...though I think God probably welcomes ANY way that we deliberately focus on His work in our lives.
FAST
The point of Lenten fasting to me always seemed to be one of depravity and denial... trying to make ourselves suffer so that we could somehow better relate to His suffering on the Cross, or an attempt to show Him how much we love Him based on how much we were willing to give up.
However, I'm realizing that pointless Lenten fasting might occur when we are completely absorbed with ourselves and what we are doing for God.
Our sacrifice is not going to somehow earn His favor or make us more acceptable to God. It can't! We can't make ourselves LESS of sinners, any more than we can pardon ourselves for our own sin.
Lent is, after all, a prelude Christ's death--the ultimate expression of God's grace!
So here's what I'm realizing this year: The point of Lent isn't what I give up...or even if I give up anything! The point is that I'm intentionally creating space in my life for my relationship with God.
I love what KC Ireton has to say about fasting:
"Fasting, when done with proper motives, is an amazingly fruitful way to create space, for it creates in us an emptiness--where there used to be something, now there is a blank, a hole, a space.
"Throughout history, fasting has been the practice of abstaining from food. However, the definition of fasting has now expanded to include abstaining from any number of things--shopping, media, novels, driving, the news, etc.
"Since the purpose of a Lenten fast is to create space in our lives for God, it makes sense that, in our consumption-driven and media-saturated culture, we would fast from things other than food.
"We need the space and time to be able to listen to God, as our lives are often too full for us to hear what He might be trying to say.
"Once we have that space, we can cultivate it through another traditional Lenten discipline: the prayerful reading and study of Scripture. There is a lovely symbiosis here: by filling the time or space that our fasting has created with Scripture, we open ourselves to having our hunger and thirst for the Word of God reawakened...create a space in which another hunger--for God's Word--can be satisfied."
REPENT
Just like fasting, and Lent in general, repentance might carry a negative connotation, too. Perhaps images of self-loathing or self-punishment come to mind, especially as we think of how much our sins pain Him.
However, more often than a temptation to self-loathe there seems to be today a temptation to write off our sins as "personality quirks" or even as "just how I am" or "just the way God made me." We try hard, and are doing our best...so we tend to have a lot of grace for our sins.
I don't want to have grace for that which separates me from my Holy God!
I'm looking forward, instead, to this Lent Season being a time that I can ask Him to help me re-evaluate my heart and my life, and to show me my sins, my shortcomings, for what they are.
I have failed...miserably. Failed to love my husband and girls like I should. Failed to judge not! Failed to pray when I said I would. Failed to spend time with Him like I had promised. Failed to love others as I should, failed to give of myself freely, failed to prioritize with His perspective.
But it's not just important that we come to echo Paul's grief: "oh, wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24) but that we can PRAISE God for showing it to us so that we can repent from it! He loves us enough to have more for us! He desires our repentance so that we can be free from bondage.
I don't want these sins to be any part of me! I don't want to carry them or be identified by them. I want the full freedom that He has promised for a life in Him.
When we repent, we acknowledge that we are in bondage to sin, and God, in his mercy and grace, frees us to live as the people we were meant to be. Praise the LORD. I want that this Lent!!
GIVE
Embracing that we are but dust, and that we are deeply sinners as well, is not to make us depressed, but is simply to remind us who we are---just humans, utterly dependent upon the mercy and loving-kindness of God.
Knowing this, we can give others the same mercy God has given us, sharing with those who are in need.
We can give of our money, of our time or of our gifts, sharing what we have, helping in a situation we may know there is pain or need. We could volunteer once a week or give donations or support a cause...however we feel led.
I love the idea of somehow pairing the fast with the giving...such as fasting from buying shoes and using the money you would have spent to buy new shoes for a family in need, or fasting from going to the movies and using that money to send a young couple to the movies...saving the money you would have spent on food and giving it to your local food pantry, etc.
Maybe after thinking through all this, you will decide to disregard Lent and focus instead on upcoming Easter week, and of course, that's ok!
But as I have been studying and researching and meditating on this opportunity to create space in my life for Him to remind me who I am (dust...but dust worth dying for), to be free of sins that I've become comfortable with or maybe aren't even aware of, to show others the same mercy He has marvelously shown me, and to fill the dark season of Lent with the Light of His Word and presence, I am GRATEFUL.
I have missed it for 29 years. This year, unburdened by superstitious rites, self-deprivation and uncertainty, I will spend Lent reckoning with the reality of darkness and death, the reality of my sin and His mercy...best-of-all, with HOPE.
How? Tomorrow...
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