Lent and Renewing Yourself

The season of Lent is nearly upon us. Many people will be making pancakes on Tuesday in celebration of 'Pancake Day', as it has been commercially dubbed. Shrove Tuesday is the 'proper' term for the day and it marks the last day before Lent when people used to get all their expensive food from their kitchen cupboards and make delicious food out of all of it, such as pancakes.

Lent always starts on Ash Wednesday, named because of the act of placing ashes on the forehead of worshippers as a sign of mourning and repentance of God, and it finishes on Maundy Thursday.  In the Christian tradition it's a time for pray and repentance, and trying to review yourself and get a closer 'friendship' with God. Some people fast, like Jesus did, and see this six-week time period as a test of spiritual strength, much like Jesus and the temptations.  In secular societies, it's a time for giving something up.

What it's hard to get through to people is that there is a reason for the giving up. What it's supposed to do is allow for more time with God, not to help lose a few pounds.  A few years ago at my church we were encouraged to take something new up as a way of exploring and getting a better understanding of the creation that was given to us.  This is something I'd much rather see people doing rather than have them giving up chocolate, or fizzy drinks, or sweets for no other reason than "because it's Lent". Go out their and explore the world and all it's glory. Try a new food, take up a new hobby.

What I'm doing is taking up going to a Lent course. The course I'm going to is called "Season of Renewal".  It looks at taking traditional elements and combining them with a fresh approach and I believe this is something that we can all do.  We can all look at ourselves and see things that need renewing, that need work on.  We can all take something from stepping back and taking a look at every aspect of our lives.

For me, I think what you do during Lent has to be something worthwhile, something that will help you in the long term, something that you can carry on doing after Lent and well past Easter. Yes, I know that, when the end of Lent comes, I will no longer be able to go to the Lent course, but I can take the teachings from it and look at going to more courses that can make me look at the spiritual side of me. If all you're going to do at the end of six-weeks is start eating chocolate again, then that was a waste of six-weeks. So that is why I say take something new up because you will be able to take forward a lot more even if you decide to stop doing this new thing.

And so, I'll leave you with the message on a bookmark that came with my Lent course book:

Lent is a time for...
Loving God more,
Saying sorry,
Finding hope and forgiveness,
Cleaning up our lives and
Making new beginnings.

Stay Strong
Michael