Lent

Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent. Does that mean a lot to you? It never really has to me, but this year I'm going to try and change that.

The season of Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter, not including Sundays, and it's meant as a time of prayer and penitence, in preparation for the celebration of Easter. While I've never been involved in any fanfare over it, some churches follow rigid schedules of fasting and worship in order to strip themselves bare before God and concentrate more fully on his incredible mercy. As far as I can see, it isn't supposed to be a happy and joyous time, but a time of remembering the loneliness, anguish and pain that Jesus suffered, in his life as well as in his death.

My previous Lent experiences have been nothing like that. A few times I've made pancakes for breakfast on Shrove Tuesday, mainly because I like eating pancakes, and one year I think I tried to give up chocolate. That was highly unsuccessful, but I did feel quite virtuous for a few days at least. And that's where I was seriously missing the point. Lent is intended to be a time of humbling ourselves before God, of reflecting on the enormity of Christ's sacrifice and our own overwhelming sinfulness.

So this year, I've decided to make something of Lent. I'm going to dwell upon Jesus' life by reading all 4 gospels between now & Easter (go here for a plan I found to do it). I'm going to cut out television and use the extra time to be brutally honest with God in prayer. And most importantly, I'm going to remember why I'm doing it: because Jesus made a sacrifice that I can't even begin to comprehend just so that I, a hopeless sinner, could be made right in the eyes of God. And that's worth remembering, any time of year.