The season of Lent officially began this week with Ash Wednesday. If you are not familiar with the tradition of Lent, it is the period of forty days (excluding Sundays) that lead up to Easter. Typically, this is the time of year that people, “give up something for Lent.” This can be fun as a child or even as an adult because it is kind of like a challenge. For example, “Let’s see how long we can go without eating chocolate.” One year Laura and I gave up television for Lent. It was before we had children and it was not that hard to do actually. This year, we have decided with our two girls that we will all give up sodas. We have tried to explain to the girls that this means even if they have a birthday party at school or if they are spending the night with someone and everyone is eating popcorn and watching movies, they are supposed to ask for water or lemonade. For the next forty days we will do our best not to drink any Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, etc.
At the end of the forty days it is always great to be able to say, “I did it!” However, that is not really the point. Giving up something for Lent is not about seeing how long we can do without something. It is about making a sacrifice in our lives that will make us more aware of the extreme sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross. We give up something for Lent in order to make more room in our lives for God to speak. In this modern age, we are constantly bombarded with noise, lights, flashing screens, and interruptions. When we remove something like that from our lives we are suddenly aware that silence can be beautiful. The year that Laura and I gave up television we were amazed at how much extra time we had in our days. All of a sudden we had time to read, talk, play games together, all kinds of things that we didn’t think we had time to do.
Can you hear God speaking in your life? Have you given up something for Lent? If not, use this time to let go of something that is cluttering your life and keeping you from being able to hear the still, small voice of God.
