The Lenten Season

The Lenten season has begun. Well, it actually began about a week ago, but it's been so busy, I haven't have had a chance to write about it yet.

As a Baptist, I really don't celebrate Lent. However, I now work in a Lutheran church, and the Lutherans do celebrate it.

There's a lot of things about Lent that I don't get. I understand the basic concept, and the traditions and such, but it's not really a Biblical thing. The Early Church didn't celebrate it. According to Wikipedia, it is not even mentioned in Christian history until the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

One of the reasons Baptists don't celebrate it, I understand, was because of the idea that it was "too Catholic". I agree with that in theory. There are a lot of things that the Catholic Church, and most liturgical churches in general, do that aren't really Biblically based; they are more traditions, or dogmatic practices, than dictated by Scripture.

As a Baptist, I take part in the practices that were charged to us by Jesus: The Lord's Supper, a believer's baptism, and evangelism (outlined in the Great Commission). Did Jesus fast for 40 days? Yes. But he didn't say that I had to do that as any requirement.

The last few years, I have tried to give something during Lent, just to see if I could. They say that if you can stop doing something or start doing something for 40 days, that you will have broken/created a habit.

This year for Lent, I have given up fast foods/convienence foods. I have found myself falling into the rut of "running through a drive thru" or grabbing a premade dinner from the grocery store. So, that's my standard. Nothing premade, pre-frozen, etc. Only freshly made, or homemade items. This has already become a challenge. For example, it rules out most restaurants, but not all.....some places, like Monty's, makes their own bread and soups and such fresh everyday. The standard is whether or not it's fresh/home made quality, or basically, if I could have just as easily made this at home myself. We'll see how this goes.