why I’m not giving up anything for Lent

Lent is a relatively new concept for me, and I’d bet a lot of people in the circles I run in. We weren’t Catholic and we weren’t particularly liturgical growing up. Since becoming part of the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America, my denomination for better or worse!) I have found a new kind of beauty and even freedom in following a more liturgical practice in corporate and daily worship. It’s funny how structure can be freeing. More on that another time…

For now, I’ve discovered something about the practice of praying intentionally during Lent that was like a “well, duh” moment for me. What if Lent isn’t so much about saying “no” to something as it is saying “yes” to BEING WITH JESUS? What if we didn’t focus on the things we need to give up – whatever they may be, as pure and noble as they may be – but on what we need to replace them with? Lent is a pruning, an intentional removal, so that healthier, more beautiful things grow. We can’t just deprive ourselves of desires without replacing them with something more satisfying and life giving. We can’t expect to just flip a switch and be rid of the things distracting us from running to Jesus with our whole selves.

If you’ve ever been on a diet of any kind, you know that it’s this kind of give and take. You discard things and you replace them. Problem is for most of us that the things we are supposed to have more of tastes, well, gross, and we just aren’t motivated to get rid of the yummy stuff. You can make the easy analogy that sin tastes like the yummy stuff and our spiritual practices taste icky, but that’s not the analogy we want here. What we want to realize is that we always giving up sinfulness – we don’t give up our vices for Lent – but we ARE adding in more intentional times of prayer and reflection and solitude and simply being present, in the presence of Jesus. We are maybe fasting so that we feel that burn, that need, that hunger for more time with God.

And then we are filled. We don’t go away empty handed. We don’t feel deprived and longing for those distractions again. When we truly seek out our hope and peace in Jesus, we find it. We truly do.

Don’t get me wrong. it isn’t a magic pill that changes your circumstances or your health or your relationships. But it changes YOU. We don’t just grin and bear it any more. We’re not just striving and trying harder any more. We have tasted the goodness of grace and have found our true rest and identity in a God who loves us and longs for us to seek Him and spend time with Him, and then causes us to remember we are ALWAYS spending time with Him. He is ALWAYS right there whether we acknowledge it or not. And you could argue that we are always seeking Him, but we look in the craziest of places for what only Jesus can give us.

So focus these days on the YES of LENT. What we ask for, we receive. Ask for more of Jesus.

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