Why I Practice Lent
Why I Practice Lent
And three tips that will help you add this practice to your journey
Lent is just a few days away (Ash Wednesday is February 22). At its core Lent is a series of weeks (or 40 days) leading up to Easter when Christians from various denominations spend time reflecting, praying, fasting, and recentering their lives on Christ. Lent it is a season where many will fast from something, whether that be food or some other habit driving practice, in an attempt to grow closer to God and gain an appreciation for what Jesus accomplished on the Cross.
Now, it should be said that while many denominations practice Lent… I am, personally, from a movement that does not. I did not practice Lent until my final year of Bible college. If anything I find it a common thing for people in my movement to dismiss and even go as far as discourage. I get it. I fully understand that Lent as a practice can carry with it some negative baggage. It can be very legalistic. “Forcing” your congregation to abstain from something for 40 days can rub some the wrong way. It can also lead to a sense of self-righteousness and false piety. I have heard all of these critiques… and at different parts of my own journey have no doubt made them myself!
Done wrong Lent can become something ugly.
But… done right Lent can be life giving.
In my experience, Lent has been an amazing time for me to cut out the things that lead to destruction and focus on the things that truly matter. It allows me to turn the volume down on those things that often compete for my time, energy, money, and effort and redirect that time, energy, money, and effort towards something that breathes life into my soul. It is a time for me to evaluate my priorities.
As we enter into that season of life once again, I thought it might be helpful for me to give some pointers that I have learned over the years. I am by no means an expert… and from a certain strict viewpoint I am sure many would have issue with my lax views on certain aspects of Lent (for example, I don’t do fish on Fridays or attend an Ash Wednesday service… although it is my hope that the church I pastor holds one at some point in the future, but that is a conversation for another day). With that said, here are a few tips.
1) Be Intentional. Spend a few days before Lent starts evaluating the things that take up your time, energy, money, and effort. One of the things I aim to do during this time is recenter myself. Life is crazy. Throughout the busy year I find myself drifting away from where I want to be. This is a great time to refocus. What do you waste time, energy, money, and effort on? Maybe you eat too much fast food or drink too much pop. Maybe you waste too much time on social media or netflix. What would it look like for you to either drastically limit or full on stop some of that? I have seen people do social media fasts, fast one or more day a week (if you are new to fasting from food, start small with a “skip a meal” approach), limit their phone time, fast from music and/or radio, and much more. Last year I fasted from caffeine! This is something personal and specific to you. Pray that something be revealed to you!
2) Redirect. I think one of the biggest mistakes we make is stop doing something just to fill that time with something else equally as problematic. You fast from Netflix just to watch YouTube instead. It’s all about redirecting and not just abstaining. Instead of pivoting to some other mode of distraction or bad habit… use the time, energy, money, and effort to do something that brings you closer to Jesus. Spend the money you would have spent on fast food to help a mission you support. Instead of social media, use that time to dive further into the Word or a spiritual book. When I gave up caffeine last year I allowed the moments of withdrawal and craving fuel moments of prayer where I asked God to sustain me the way I rely on caffeine. The idea here is for these 40 days to help you develop good habits and grow your faith, not just stop doing something because it’s that time of year and everyone else is doing it.
3) Keep it between you and God. The third thing I would encourage is to keep your practice of Lent private (there is one exception to this that I will share in a moment). One of the temptations we have when we fast from something is to immediately tell as many people as we can. “Hey everyone I am leaving Facebook for Lent! See you after Easter!” Why? Why do we feel this compulsion? It is often directly due to our desire to inflate our image. Just keep it to yourself. The goal is to deepen our faith and not other people’s perceptions of us. Scripture tells us to fast in such a way that no one notices. The one exception that I would throw in is to include people close to you on your journey for accountability purposes. Normally when I fast from something during Lent the only people who know what I am fasting from are my family, my spiritual mentor, and sometimes those who work in the office.
I hope this is helpful and that you are able to allow this practice to deepen your love for Christ! Have you ever practiced Lent before? Why or why not? Would love to hear from you in the comments!