Silly Christian! Lenten Is For God!

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Lent is a Catholic tradition that is practiced in a lot of churches today (Catholic or not). It seems that a lot of people get the wrong idea about it. A lot of people will tell you that Lent is about sacrificing something for the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday. When we ask most people why they are giving something up for Lent they wouldn't be able to tell you. After all, why question tradition?

As Americans, we spend so much time on ourselves daily. It's so much of a habit that we don't even think about it most of the time. Most of our time is spent feeding ourselves, making sure we get enough sleep, making sure we don't miss our favorite show on TV. As a culture we are obsessed with ourselves. Our day is so full of just us that we don't leave time for God.

A lot of people miss the point of Lent. They think it's just about sacrificing something. Someone might go without chocolate for the forty days and I heard about someone who went without spending money. He was so serious about not spending money that he used up all the gas on his parent's car and coasted on home not bothering to stop at a gas station. I see a problem here.

Lent isn't a sacrifice competition. It's about bringing God back into our lives. It's about bringing the focus away from ourselves and bringing to focus to God and His people. We should use this Lenten season to get engaged in the community and God and make sacrifices to do so. We are responsible for the community we live in. We are responsible for the souls of the people in the community that we live in. God calls us to be culturally engaged to share the gospel with others. We are to be "the salt of the earth" (Mat. 5:13).

Lent isn't just about sacrificing, it's about sacrificing to become closer to God and His people. Lent is about bringing that balance back into our lives that we tend to lose between time for ourselves and time for God and others. So let's become culturally engaged and get us some quality God time.