The Struggle Through Lent

Lent can be very trying.  So often, we embrace Lent early on as a way to purify ourselves from all the bad habits we have, but fail miserably at fulfilling our intentions for the entire forty days.  I notice that lots of people make Lenten devotions that are nice and good, but not specific to the things they really should be working on.  For instance, someone may need to increase prayer, but instead, they give up eating chocolate.  This is missing the point of Lent – a purification of our sinful ways towards a life in Christ.

Another problem I see pretty regularly is that we lose sight of the point of giving something up and fail to recognize what we need to include/add something to counteract the deprivation.  For instance, if you give up chocolate to improve your will power, but constantly complain about not being able to eat chocolate, you aren’t working on your will power.  Personally, I gave up music while driving.  I didn’t give it up to simply give it up, I gave it up to 1. increase my prayer life (which means I have to pray while I’m driving, instead of listening to music) and 2. experience some silence, even if it is distracted silence.

Often times, we set lofty goals for what sort of Lent we expect to experience and then get frustrated and disappointed that we aren’t as “holy” as we had hoped.  This is often referred to as “dryness.”  Sometimes it works out, but often, we fail to meet our goals.  The frustration, doubt, anger and uneasiness that comes from a “bad” Lenten experience is what the devil wants from you.  Don’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that you were frustrated.

So, with only a few days left for Lent 2010, you can still make your Lenten devotions strong.  If you’ve been doing poorly, you can get back on track and make a change in your life.

Man up!