I’ve been thinking about Lent and why people “give things up for Lent.”
Immediately before beginning his ministry, Jesus wandered in the desert. For forty days and nights, He fasted. In the desert, He endured and resisted repeated temptation by the devil. First, the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. Next, the devil tempted Jesus to jump off a pinnacle and be caught by angels. Finally, the devil offered Jesus to rule over all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would worship the devil. Of course, Jesus resisted each of the devil’s temptations.
Christians prepare for the coming of Easter during the forty days of Lent. Traditionally, it is a time of prayer, reflection, and abstinence. These forty days are also meant to represent the forty days Jesus spent in the desert, enduring temptation by Satan. Hence, we Christians endure temptation—as Jesus did—by “giving something up for Lent.”
What I’ve been thinking about in the past few days is why people choose to give up certain things. Many people give up chocolate, dessert, meat, carbs, sacks between meals, cigarettes, TV, video games, or alcohol. While each of these is a worthwhile thing to give up, it strikes me that the person giving them up is the sole beneficiary of giving them up. If I give up sweets, I’ll lose weight. If I give up TV or video games, I’ll have more time to do things. If I give up smoking, I’ll breathe easier.
As we all do, I get involved in my own life and sometimes forget about others. Instead of giving something up for Lent that will only benefit my own health (dessert or meat), I want to make an effort to help others. For Lent, I will take special attention to lower my carbon footprint and, thereby, help those who are affected by climate change.
Like many, I think about global warming—er, global weirding—and try to be part of the solution. But, I often forget about it. Or my efforts are limited to what is convenient for me at that moment. For the forty days of Lent, I’ll make some hard choices to use less energy—to make a sacrifice for the benefit of people I can’t even see and will never meet. I’ll use this blog to document my progress.
I’m not the only one with this idea. Carbon Fast 2010 is a movement that asks Christians to “fast from carbon, pray and cry out for climate justice.” Additionally, The Daily Green has an article entitled, “9 Things You Can Give Up for Lent That Will Help the Environment.”
While I won’t be perfect, I’m really going to try to do better in the next [39] days.