Char's Blog
Lent - what do we need that for?
Things are a bit off-centre here today. Darryl is cramming to finish his book summaries before he leaves for Boston and so my time of single-parenting arrived somewhat ahead of schedule!
Christina, working on my computer, came across my Lent Calendar 2003 and asked, "Lent! What do we need that for?"
Her question startled me. Admittedly, Lent is not something we have discussed at length or practiced as a family. Our house has not, nor is likely in the next few weeks to, become a haven of tranquility suitable for sustained spiritual reflection. Nor have we stopped eating certain foods. In her experience, Lent is something practiced by some of her friends who attend different churches and yet are believers in Jesus. To her mind, Lent is, at best, not essential to faith in Jesus Christ and, at worst, confusing and irrelevant.
It is amazing how quickly we learn boundaries: both the necessary and the unnecessary! It is also amazing how rigidly we enforce the boundaries we have learned.
Time for a review of history and thinking about what Lent could mean for us today.