Is Lent for me... or just my Catholic cousin?

“What are you giving up for Lent?” was a common question every year as I was growing up. I grew up going to an Episcopal church, and our neighbors across the street were Catholic, so Lent was something we all observed every year. It wasn’t until college that I really began to look at what I was doing to observe Lent and think about the WHY I observed Lent. I just knew that we went to church on Ash Wednesday, and from that day until Easter, I was supposed to give up something that I really liked, in order to think about Jesus? So, I regularly gave up chocolate or soda, but rarely did I make it the full 40 days. One year, when I was in High School, my Lent “thing” was that I wasn’t going to miss a Sunday of Church during those six weeks. I was a swimmer, and we had swim meets almost every weekend, so my coach was rather perturbed that I would only go to the meets on Saturday for that time. I so wanted to do the “right” thing and be accepted and loved by God, and I thought this would surely tip the scales in my favor. 

Once I became a born-again believer and began attending a Protestant church, Lent just vanished from my view.  Every once in a while, I would think about it, and my mom might ask me what I was doing for Lent, but I really had no desire or reason to participate in it. It’s only been the past five years that I’ve spent time looking into Lent, specifically fasting during Lent, to figure out if there is a good reason for Protestant’s to observe it.  

We can go back to Irenaeus of Lyons (c 130-200) to see a special observance of penitence or self-reflection prior to Easter, but it only lasted two or three days. In 325, a 40-day period of fasting to reflect the 40 days that Jesus was in the wilderness fasting, praying, and being tempted by the devil was decided at the council of Nicea. How the 40 days were counted varied, some only fasted on weekdays, while others fasted the whole week. The fasts were broken by one meal a day, in the evening. 

Gregory the Great (c 540-604) established that this 40 day period would start on Ash Wednesday (not called that until the 11th Century) and would not include Sundays, so it is 46 days total. Gregory is credited with starting the tradition of ashes on the forehead, as people came to services to experience the forgiveness of God, they would have ashes put on their foreheads to remind them that "You are dust, and to dust you will return" (Gen 3:19). Ashes are used throughout the Old Testament to indicate mourning and are generally paired with the wearing of sackcloth. Mordecai does this in Esther to mourn the decree of the King of Persia to kill all the Jewish people in the Persian empire (Esther 4:1). In Job, he mourns by wearing sackcloth and you guessed it, ashes (Job 42:6). And, in Jonah we see when Jonah preaches in Nineveh about conversion and repentance, the people fast and put on sackcloth and sit in ashes (Jonah 3:5-6).

So, for the past five years, I have gotten back into observing Lent. Not out of a sense of duty, but out of a sense of wanting to identify with Jesus on a deeper level. Jesus suffered much on my behalf, I should be able to suffer in some small way in order to draw closer to Him. Looking at our sin is not pleasant, nor easy, but these 40 days of doing without something, makes the celebration of Easter and what Christ accomplished for us as he rose from the grave so much more celebratory. 

One year I did fast from chocolate. One year I fasted from social media. One year I fasted from criticism. One year I did a different type of fast each week. Each time I observe Lent, it’s a way to meaningfully honor Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf. The time spent focusing on repentance and Jesus’ journey to the cross, it’s a sobering reminder that causes me to love Jesus more. 

This year, I have put together a free Lent guide for those of you who would like a more disciplined approach to Lent. I’ll have ideas for what and how to observe Lent. In addition to that, for a small fee, you can receive a weekly email for the six weeks with devotional thoughts for the week, and a guided fast for the week. Click here to access the free guide.