As Lent is a time of preparation for the highest of holy days, I try to take extra time to reflect and renew my commitment to follow in the way of Jesus.  For me, I find it more helpful to my spiritual journey to "take something on " rather than "give something up" for Lent.  Choosing to take on extra prayer time, or a weekly small group seems to work better for me than just giving up chocolate!

Shalom!

I like to regard Lent as the equivalent of Jesus' 40 days in the desert, sort of a Christian equivalent of the indigenous Vision Quest.

Reflection is often an emphasis in Lent, so I look forward to the Lenten book studies we often have. There's some "giving up" as well as "taking on" here - we give up some of our time for the study, and we take on the work of study. This year, our church will be looking at Brian Sanguin's "Darwin, Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos".   Although study and reflection can be done at any time of the year, it often seems that we don't get around to it unless the traditions of the season remind us that "it's time".

Greetings!

For me, Lent is a time of reflection . . . a quest in coming closer to, knowing, and understanding God.  A time of learning and growing, and willing to be changed.

There have been years when I have chosen to "give something up", but more often than not I prefer to "take something on" . . . as in a special daily devotion, a commited time of prayer/meditation, or an attitude of giving to or serving others.

I'm not sure what I am going to do this year . . . I guess I'd better hurry up and decide.

Hope, peace, joy, love . . .

I'm like Beloved - I usually take on something more - we are having a meeting at our church this evening and looking at suggestions for Lent etc.  - so maybe I'll know soon what extra I'll be taking on.

One thing I am interested in is the noon hour series being held at a downtown church during Lent - I may try and get to some of them

Lent has always been a special time of year for me and I trust that it will always continue to be a time when I deepen my relationship with God

I agree, Eileen. Now it the Progressives that I am wondering about. If Gretta's church does not speak about these things, would Lent be a nothing season to them.

Hi,

I'm not a member of Gretta's church... and I'm not even sure whether the title "progressive" applies to me or not...  Anyway, for me Lent is a rather sombre period of time... although, with two little kids around, it's not as easy.  But, still, I would like to spend more time with scripture and talking with my family about the meaning of sacrifice in our lives as well as the sacrifices made by others...  Both my partner and I are rather reflective people and would love to participate in study groups and such, but it's so hard to find childcare...

I look forward to Lent.  It holds more meaning for me then Christmas... not because I believe in atonement theology or Jesus'  physical resurrection...  but because I mourn his loss for the community of friends and disciples that gathered around him, for what could have been had he lived, for not having being alive when he was and not having been able to follow and participate... 

I like to think of Lent as a period of study and reflection.  I don't give anything up - I wish I could give up some of my busyness but it doesn't seem possible at this time.  I do try to make a little time for myself, for reading, for relaxing, for letting the spirit speak to me.

 I didn't pay much attention to Lent until a few years ago. Now it's actually I time I look forward too. For me it's an extended time of comtemplation and planning.  I find that since my life and work now has become more focused on the seasons and plants, spring is the time when things get going. The Lenten season is when much of the preparation occurs. It's hard to explain but it fits somehow.

 I do give something up. I find it quite a spiritual process. This year I was planning to give up chocolate but since for health reasons I have to give it up anyways  I decided to do something else.  This year will be a interesting as I've decided to give up posting on message boards...and yes that even means here. :D   I realized that I do spend a lot of time on the computer so for 40 days I'm going to severely cut back my online time. I can't stop completely as I do need it for my work.  It's weird but it actually scares me a little, so I figure it's a good thing to try at least.  Face your fears they say!

Sigh, it looks like I will be giving up the pleasure of reading Jadespring's posts for 40 days

Last year was my first real experience with the Lenten process of giving up something and as a group we gave up complaining and sarcasm - no easy task I say! 

Maybe this year I will give up proscrastination - which has been a life long habit - I don't know, I think I'll wait till March lst to decide....

LB

You know you are getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate.     Author Unknown

Greetings!

Hey, LB, I was thinking about you the other day . . . thinking that I missed your famous quotes on the bottom of your posts (at least the posts I have been checking out)!

What great things to give up (complaining and sarcasm) . . . I'm going to have to ponder that . . .

Hope, peace, joy, love . . .

First of all, let's say I am playing devil's Advocate. I do not see how giving something up for 40 days  is meaningful. So you give up chocolate or coffee or booze, where does that leave you the other 325 days. To me that is just a token penance.It is  not a life altering experience. It is similiar to going to confession. Confess today - do the same thing tomorrow.

Greetings!

Okay, crazyheart, you devil you . . . or rather . . . you devil's advocate you . . .

While I am not really a "giver upper", I have friends who seriously take the giving up part of Lent.  One friend of mine does give up coffee (and this can be a testy time for a few days!).  For this friend it is symbolic of Jesus' sacrifice for her, and for those 40 days is a reminder of this and her relationship with Jesus/God.  That is what the meaning in it is for her.  For people who "give up" it is a means of identifying more closely with Jesus and also a way of expressing thanks and love.  The other 325 days they find a different way of understanding and growing in their relationship with God.

I think whether it is Lent (and giving up) or confession . . . God looks at the attitude of the heart . . . even when we fail . . . what is important is how we feel about God and our relationship with God.

Hope, peace, joy, love . . .

I was never into lent. I could never think of anything that I would be willing to give up. I think there is a problem with the way that lent is treated in Catholic schools because it's basically expected that you will give something up and if you don't or if you fall off the wagon you are made to feel like a terrible person. I remember a lot of kids would want to give up easy things and the teachers would say that it's not good enough to give up things that you feel you can actually live without, and that it has to be something important. But most of the things we thought were important we also thought were absolutely necessary (whether or not this was actually true) so it was difficult to find something.

I can see the time being a positive thing for some people, but only if they decide to give something up because they want to, not because they are being made to. If the giving up is voluntary, then there's a greater chance that the person will actually give up, or cut back on the thing they gave up, but if you're just doing it because it's that time of year for giving things up, then chances are that you're just going to go back into your old habits again afterword (which kinda makes giving the thing up in the first place pointless imo).

 Hey Killer, I think you bring up a pretty valid point about some of the differences between being forced  or feeling forced to do something vs choosing to do something.   In a forced situation it can lose it's intended meaning and relavence.  It's more based on the rule and obeying some sort of percieved authority rather then engaing with the reasons behind the rule in the first place.

 I choose to participate in some of the Lenten traditions because I discovered some relevance to my own personal life.  No one or thing is watching over me to make sure I do it or do it in some particular fashion.  I can honestly say that, for me,  if there was and I felt forced in some reason that it would be a way more superficial experience, more about obeying something rather then engaging with something.

How about giving up christian dogma for lent? The ultimate sacrifice and the ulimate redemption.

 Gah I hit save to soon... :D 

 I don't see the giving up part as necessarily something that I intend to give up for all time, though I do know people who have used Lent as a motivator to help quit smoking. 

 I see it more as picking something that is important and going through a process of looking at your life without that important thing.  We tend to be creatures of habit and sometimes do things without really thinking deeply about why.    In the end the conclusion might be a recognition that it IS really important and reengaged but with a better understanding of why that is.  In the end it might be a recognition that yes it's important but maybe not in the same way or at the same level. I might find that through the giving up I've found other things that I find important in the mean time.   In the end I might recognize that really what I gave up isn't that important to my life at all.

Diane Butler Bass writes:

Lent tempts Christians to try to fulfill other people’s expectations of what spirituality should look like, usually related to some sort of religious achievement or self-mortification. But Lent is neither success nor punishment. Ultimately, Lent urges us to let go of self-deception and pleasing others. These 40 days ask only one thing of us: to find our truest selves on a journey toward God.

Giving up Lent for Lent meant giving up guilt. Although I have been back to church for Ash Wednesday many times since I gave up Lent for Lent, that year freed me from spiritual tyranny and helped me understand Easter anew. The journey to Easter is not a mournful denial of our humanity. Rather, Lent embraces our humanity – our deepest fears, our doubts, our mistakes and sins, our grief, and our pain. Lent is also about joy, self-discovery, connecting with others, and doing justice. Lent is not morbid church services. It is about being fully human and knowing God’s presence in the crosshairs of blessing and bane. And it is about waiting, waiting in those crosshairs, for resurrection.