Is Lent Really Worth It?

Part of what comes with moving across the world is the acquiring of new traditions. For instance, just as the language is slightly different, so are the holidays. There is certainly no Independence Day on 4^th of July, but England does have its own “Bonfire Night” or “Guy Fawkes day” which conversely memorializes the failure of the Gunpowder plot (It’s very British of them to celebrate keeping things as usual). I also had to find another church to be a part of during my time in England. Fortunately, I’ve settled pretty quickly into a wonderful Anglican Church, and with it, I have acquired a whole host of new traditions, one of which was Lent.

Growing up, Lent was always a “Catholic thing.” The distribution of ashes marked both its participants and the day where I was surprised to find out that this co-worker or that customer was religious. Lent also meant cheap Fillet-O-Fishes on Fridays, but I don’t really like McDonalds’ fish so Lent was never really my thing. It also didn’t used to be an evangelical thing either. Only recently, have more evangelicals begun to embrace such traditions by appropriating them for their own contexts. I have considered participating in the Lenten season before, but only this year am I finally trying it after figuring out what it really means.

From the Lectionary:

“It is indeed right and good
to give you thanks and praise,
almighty God and everlasting Father,
through Jesus Christ your Son.
For in these forty days
you lead us into the desert of repentance
that through a pilgrimage of prayer and discipline
we may grow in grace
and learn to be your people once again.
Through fasting, prayer and acts of service
you bring us back to your generous heart.
Through study of your holy word
you open our eyes to your presence in the world
and free our hands to welcome others
into the radiant splendour of your love.
As we prepare to celebrate the Easter feast
with joyful hearts and minds
we bless you for your mercy
and join with saints and angels
for ever praising you and saying . . .”

The season of Lent is the 40 day period leading up to Easter in which Christians prepare themselves spiritually for Easter. Sort of how Christmas can just sneak up on you and you spend the remaining hours of Christmas Eve running around buying presents (although, that’s what Advent is for), Good Friday and Easter can more disastrously sneak right past you. Easter ought to be the biggest and best day of the year, not Guy Fawkes or Independence day! We celebrate because it marks the resurrection of the Son of God, our crucified Savior, Jesus Christ. (Insert cosmic fireworks of biblical proportions)

But often, there is no build up or anticipation for this day simply because our non-liturgical calendars aren’t meant for that sort of thing. In Lent, the Christian reorients his or her life around the life and time of Christ. By virtue of their own fast, they symbolically imitate Jesus’ 40 day fast in the wilderness as they prepare their own heart in self-examination and denial. You can fast from anything, but the goal is not to simply give something up, but to pursue Jesus through confession and repentance. Through this season, the Christian has the opportunity to realign with Jesus as the Holy Spirit begins to reveal sin and lead the believer towards repentance. It is meant to be a somber and sobering time leading up to a joyous celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. But does this tradition work? Is it really worth it?

I don’t know if it “works” for everyone, but so far, I am a huge fan. I’ve loosely been keeping a journal and here is a short excerpt from February 18^th, (Please look past the fact that my inner-self reflects like he is writing a blog),

As I see the tragedies that are happening in my country, I feel burdened to say something. Another school shooting?? I want to yell and channel my anger and frustration into something productive, you know like a well-crafted Facebook post. I want to choose my words carefully to convey my thoughts and to put forward a solution.

But I can’t. I gave up Facebook for Lent.

What is strange is that I think this lent thing is working. As soon as I realized that none of my friends back home could hear my well-formulated arguments addressing the current crises, I wondered if all of these efforts were put towards the wrong thing. What can a social media post do? I think it really can do a lot of great things, but why is that my first go to? Why do I first spend my time thinking of arguments for and against things instead of praying?

I feel that as I look towards Easter, I realize why I need Lent. It is a reminder of my weakness. A reminder that I seek to solve problems that cannot be solved by me. I want to fix things and change the world, all without God.

Giving up Facebook hardly counts as a fast, but even this simple denial has been really fruitful for me. I’ve found that I am less stressed from constantly following threads and reading random articles. I’m less frustrated at other people (for their Facebook posts), and I have been filling my time with more productive things than reading up on yet another government kerfuffle. But besides all of the practical things, God is teaching me to be more reliant on Him.

I am also going through a very nice Lenten devotional that is working through Exodus. It has been so enriching to reflect these on semi-familiar passages through the new perspective of Lent. I’ve come to realize that I don’t trust God enough, that I don’t pray enough, that I don’t love others nearly as much as I ought to, and believe me, the list can go on. Yet, I have also been overwhelmed with the truth that God hears my cries, that He brings me out through the other side of hardships to train and grow me, and that in Christ, God has definitively communicated his love for me.

But the best news is that it’s only half-way through Lent.

This means that if you wanted, you could still participate. Literally, all you have to do is pick something to not eat, drink, or do, and instead of that something, you talk to God. You could join in with me, and countless other sisters and brothers in the faith as we collectively focus on the work of Jesus Christ and how his resurrection reshapes our entire existence. We can do this because it’s not just a Catholic thing, it’s a catholic thing; it’s for everyone who trusts in the name of Jesus. And this year, Easter won’t sneak by us, nor will it just be a one-day event, but it will be the culmination of a season and a well-appreciated celebration. But while we are waiting for that day, the Holy Spirit will teach us through prayer the impact of this truth and will bring to light sins and issues that we really just need to talk to God about. It can be scary, but it is worth it. And in my experience, Lent really is worth it.