Ash Wednesday & the Lenten Season

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. The day that marks the beginning of the Lenten Season. At 7:30 p.m. I will get the ashes on my forehead which will be the external sign of the internal reality that I am striving toward humility in God's midst. The forty days on the Lenten calendar are representative of the time that Christ spent in the desert being tempted by the devil. The culmination of these forty days is the celebration of the week of Easter that starts on Palm Sunday and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. During the forty days of Lent, through Holy Saturday, it was tradition for Christians to observe a fast—not completely abstaining from eating and drinking, but limiting the kinds of food and drink as well as the number of meals.
The tradition of fasting dates back to the early Middle Ages, when examples of acceptable foods were fish, bread, and fowl, and when the consumption of alcohol was for the most part banned during the fast. Nowadays, people who choose to observe the fast are much less restricted in their choice of foods, and fasting is mostly about being modest and showing humility and restraint in one’s eating habits. For some this means giving up chocolate (agh horrors!) or meat or coffee or what ever you should really eat less of anyway...really more of a resolution than a sacrifice. Giving up something for Lent isn't a get-skinny-in-time-for-Spring-Break thing...it's a concentration on Christ's journey and a very private mental communion with God. I have friends who always ask what I'm giving up for Lent...just like they ask me about my New Year's resolutions. I always lie and say I haven't given anything up or that I haven't decided. For me, it's a very private thing...somehow just not for conversation.

However you decide to concentrate on this time make it meaningful. It may not be giving anything up at all. It may be a Lenten book study (click here to see the one offered at FUMC Dallas) or intense moments of prayer in a private place. Make it a time to explore your relationship with God and ask some really tough questions of yourself. Am I putting my faith into action by serving others? Am I being quiet and really listening to God's answers to my concerns? Am I really working to make those changes in myself that I've been wanting to change? Let these next 40 days be pure communion with God.