It Starts Today

I heard it once in a sermon at my church several years ago; it was about the purpose of Lenten “giving up.” Too many times I think we overlook the actual reason for this sacrifice.

So many of us chose to give things like chocolate up for Lent. But then, as soon as that giant Easter basket is sat down in front of us, we devour every poor bunny and Cadbury egg in sight because YAY, Lent is over! These types of actions only prove that most of us only partly understand the purpose of this “giving up” practice during Lent.

Lent is really about conversion, turning our lives more completely over to Christ and his way of life. That always involves giving up sin in some form. The goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to push sin out of our lives forever. Conversion means leaving behind an old way of living and acting in order to embrace new life in Christ.

You don’t give something up for Lent because of a personal gain (giving up sweets for the purpose of weight loss) or because of the “Just to do it” approach (giving up gum just to give up gum). Give your “giving up” a purpose; a sin that you want to work out of your life so that you are living your life more like the life Christ intended for you.

For Lent this year, I am giving up negative gossip. Let’s be honest, we all do it. We find ourselves sitting around with our buddies and the conversation turns negative when someone starts to go off on how obnoxious “Julie” was at the bar on Saturday and how ugly her shoes were. (Don’t lie; you know you have participated before). Majority of the time (and yes, I am preaching to myself) we partake in negative gossip because it almost makes us feel better about ourselves. How twisted is this? I want to fully adopt the approach that I should have been following for the past 28 years, “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.”

During the times that shall come when my mouth wants to open up and join in on the negative gossip conversations, I want to turn my heart towards Him. Instead of joining in and agreeing with how much I can’t stand that “Dave” always has to be the life of the party, I will pause and remember that God satisfies me more than “this thing” does and I CAN live without it in order to be a better person.

What are you giving up for Lent?