Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Helpful: Give it up

I'm trying to figure out what to do about Lent. Catholics do this a lot more than Methodists do, but I feel like I should think seriously about it this year. People abstain from eating chocolate or meat (and yes Jair, french fries,) stop drinking, swearing or smoking, etc. A friend at work even said that her other Catholic friends make a big deal about not eating white bread or candy, then cheat the whole time (especially on Sundays, when "Lent doesn't count.") Sometimes it feels like it's all for show.

My old pastor once said that a sacrifice for Lent only meant something if the time or energy you had been spending on the "vice" was then going to be used for something holy, like prayer, meditation, or reading scripture. I'm not sure that I would go that far, but I see his point: controlling your body and mind or overcoming a bad habit might be a good thing to do, but the context of Lent is religious preparation for the high holy day of the entire Christian year: Easter.

So, since it starts tomorrow, I have to make up my mind now. Here goes:

No video games for Lent. The time I would have played video games I will spend reading (Bible or otherwise.) It's not a huge sacrifice, but it's something.

1 comment:

MK said...

That makes sense to me, Indy.