In quite a few Christian traditions, the season of Lent is seen as the time in which you "give up" something. I've heard about a number of different things that people have given up over the years, such as pop, sugar, snacks, a bad habit, and other such things. Also, in recent years, there seems to have been a realization that it's not good to only give things up, but perhaps you can even replace them with something good, and so people now add something that they want to incorporate into their life during this season.
This traditional practice is something that can be easily misunderstood. From an outsiders point of view, it may simply appear that a Christian is trying to make one part of their life better. While an admirable thing, there is nothing particularly "Christian" in wanting to improve your life. You'd be hard pressed to find many people who want to destroy their lives, and so most people in the world are trying to find some way to improve their life, whether by giving up something harmful, or by taking on a habit or practice that is beneficial.
This is where it's helpful to look back at some of the history of this season. Back when the Christian Church fell mostly under one "organization", there was the thought that there were seven deadly "sins", sins which needed to be dealt with on our part in order to have grace from God. So, during the Lent season, Christians were to prove that they were worthy of Christ's sacrifice by "giving up" one of these seven deadly sins. Of course, one of the easiest ones would be the deadly sin of gluttony. After all, giving up some kind of food for a period of about 7 weeks doesn't seem too bad, and might actually be doable.
Thus, the origin of this "practice" is in the battle against the sin that lives within all people, Christians and otherwise. Giving something up was designed to be a battle against one particular sin that vexed the Christian in his or her life. Perhaps they would be able to gain a sense of control over that sin, and the Church year provided a forum to work on that particular sin. Also, since Lent is a season where we focus on Christ taking away our sin, the thought was there that we could give Him "less" sin to have to carry to the cross.
So, rather than ask the question that I used as the title of this post, I'll ask another question. Why did you give up/take on something for Lent? Was it to improve your life? Was it to demonstrate faithfulness to God? Was it to give Jesus less of a burden on the cross? Or have you ever really thought about it?
This traditional practice is something that can be easily misunderstood. From an outsiders point of view, it may simply appear that a Christian is trying to make one part of their life better. While an admirable thing, there is nothing particularly "Christian" in wanting to improve your life. You'd be hard pressed to find many people who want to destroy their lives, and so most people in the world are trying to find some way to improve their life, whether by giving up something harmful, or by taking on a habit or practice that is beneficial.
This is where it's helpful to look back at some of the history of this season. Back when the Christian Church fell mostly under one "organization", there was the thought that there were seven deadly "sins", sins which needed to be dealt with on our part in order to have grace from God. So, during the Lent season, Christians were to prove that they were worthy of Christ's sacrifice by "giving up" one of these seven deadly sins. Of course, one of the easiest ones would be the deadly sin of gluttony. After all, giving up some kind of food for a period of about 7 weeks doesn't seem too bad, and might actually be doable.
Thus, the origin of this "practice" is in the battle against the sin that lives within all people, Christians and otherwise. Giving something up was designed to be a battle against one particular sin that vexed the Christian in his or her life. Perhaps they would be able to gain a sense of control over that sin, and the Church year provided a forum to work on that particular sin. Also, since Lent is a season where we focus on Christ taking away our sin, the thought was there that we could give Him "less" sin to have to carry to the cross.
So, rather than ask the question that I used as the title of this post, I'll ask another question. Why did you give up/take on something for Lent? Was it to improve your life? Was it to demonstrate faithfulness to God? Was it to give Jesus less of a burden on the cross? Or have you ever really thought about it?
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