Tuesday, February 16, 2010

So for Lent this year ...

It's Pancake Day today and that means the start of Lent tomorrow. As a child and young adult, I always gave up something for Lent and even in recent years I've given up chocolate and spider solitaire. But there's no real meaning in it as far as I'm concerned: it's a reason with a time limit.

I believe the idea behind Lent, the fasting from food as it was traditionally, is to cause us to meditate on what Christ did for us in going to the cross, to share in his suffering and to be grateful. Well, I was thinking about this when we were walking. Christians believe Christ suffered so we wouldn't have to. So it seems a bit pointless to make myself undergo something meaningless. (Good cop-out, eh?)

But I've seen gratitude memes of various sorts of a number of different blogs recently so I decided I'd do my own version. Thus, for the six weeks of Lent up until Easter, I'm going to post each day on something I'm thankful for. It may be big; it may be small; it may be silly; it may be serious. And there may be days when it will be a challenge - especially if I come back from the hairdresser's tomorrow hating my hair ...

12 comments:

Gledwood said...

Pancake day??!? How the hell did that happen? Whenever I buy in Jiff Lemon it goes in about 2 hours on homemade lemonade...

As for lent, the only lent I'm interested in is the kind you empty out of a screen at the back of the tumbledryer ~ haha!

By the way, Liz, how ARE you. I hope that swine George is behaving himself!

Istvanski said...

Think I'll give up hope for lent...
;-?
Happy Pancake Day!

Anonymous said...

I love pancake day, so much so that we had it early this year. What a great idea to post about things you appreciate.

Anonymous said...

We used to go to lent Lunch once a week for lent - obviously - and fast. A bit.

Leslie: said...

You're a better Xian than I am, as I don't "do" Lent. I thought that was for Catholics.

Anonymous said...

Catholics and high Anglicans alike we also did latin and men with their handbags on fire..

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

I think that is a brilliant idea...I am still wondering what to do..oops still have time to think.

Leslie....I am sure it is not just for Catholics!

Jay said...

I agree with you, Liz. I used to give something up for Lent, these days I prefer to make myself do something useful each day, even if it's a very small thing. Best if it's useful to someone else, I suppose, but there are days I'm so limited that it might be something like cleaning out a desk drawer - but something I wouldn't otherwise do.

CherryPie said...

I want to give up worrying but...

Life is fighting me on that one!

Rose said...

This is an excellent idea, Liz! I have a friend, a good Catholic, who always gives up lima beans for Lent:) I don't know, for me giving up chocolate and spider solitaire would be a real sacrifice.

The Merry said...

Speaking as a not-as-good-as-I-should-be Catholic, I used to give up tangible things for Lent, such as chocolate or coffee (oh, that was a tough 40 days).

These days, I'm much more hard-core. Last year I gave up gossip; I would not say /any/thing behind someone's back that I was not prepared to say to their face. (That was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Lent is an eye opener.)

This year, I'm giving up long-held resentment. Every time I think of some long-ago injustice or cruel word that was inflicted on me, I'm going to let it go.

This probably won't be a fun Lent either. But still useful, all the same.

Furtheron said...

years back I always used to give up alcohol - the yearly big gesture and of course I let everyone know about it because it was important that people were aware of this and clearly this showed I didn't have a problem with drinking at all. Yes well - the first year I snuck off to drink on my own I just dropped that and if pushed went on about not being religious... What a load of nonsense.

You've reminded me - so I've been an updated my gratful list