OUR VIEW: Lent not limited to one denomination
Forty days and 40 nights. The Bible tells the story of Jesus Christ spending that time in the wilderness fasting, praying and resisting temptation. In commemoration of this event, the Catholic church began the celebration of Lent in which people do essentially the same thing, preparing themselves for Easter Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of Christ.
Lent participants choose something they see as harmful or too excessive in their lives, and they give it up. Candy, soda and Facebook are all common things that are cut from people’s lives in this time of fasting.
However, these days, Lent has become more and more common among those outside of Catholicism and other Christian traditions. And we say, props to them!
We live in a complicated, busy and stress-filled world. We all have a lot going on in our lives, yet we still find things to waste time or live slothfully. Facebook is a place we probably all spend more time than we should. Many students spend most of their time on campus where we are often limited to very selected, and not-so-healthy meal options, so we resort to a Happy Hour soda and some M&Ms.
There are also more options and interpretations to the spirit of Lent than the strict definition of fasting. Some choose to donate monetarily or give their time to a cause related to what they have given up – or unrelated. No harm in an excuse for a little charity. Some choose to implement a policy such as attending church, studying or eating five vegetables a day in their version of Lent. You know, something along the lines of ‘it takes so many repetitions to form a habit’ and ‘you have to replace a bad habit with something else.’
By definition, it’s a chance to reflect on your faith and how you implement that faith in your life. But it’s also a chance to reflect on where you are and where you want to be and pour some effort into making the changes that otherwise you’d never find the motivation for.
Forty days? That’s hardly anything. There are less than 40 days until our semester is over. Compared to the 365 days in our normal year, 40 of those seems like nothing. To give something up from our lives for 40 days would not be that hard.
To give up something “important” in our lives teaches valuable life-lessons. Everyone needs a little sacrifice in their lives. It can show us how much we really do value that thing, or let us see that it isn’t actually something vital and we can, in fact, live without it.