Ignoring my plagiarised suggestion to give up God for Lent, perhaps my Bible study friends could be encouraged to give up Lent for Lent? If Lent means a time of guilt for eating chocolate, for not repenting enough, for not entering into the season enough, perhaps the best way you can observe Lent is by giving up the very thing which is getting in the way of Lent - Lent.

But Lent is neither success nor punishment. Ultimately, Lent urges us to let go of self-deception and pleasing others. These 40 days ask only one thing of us: to find our truest selves on a journey toward God.

Giving up Lent for Lent meant giving up guilt. Although I have been back to church for Ash Wednesday many times since I gave up Lent for Lent, that year freed me from spiritual tyranny and helped me understand Easter anew. The journey to Easter is not a mournful denial of our humanity. Rather, Lent embraces our humanity – our deepest fears, our doubts, our mistakes and sins, our grief, and our pain. Lent is also about joy, self-discovery, connecting with others, and doing justice. Lent is not morbid church services. It is about being fully human and knowing God’s presence in the crosshairs of blessing and bane. And it is about waiting, waiting in those crosshairs, for resurrection.

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At our Church we ran a Lenten Series focusing on Transformation. I used that very phrase, "give up Lent for Lent" with regard to the fact that we should not give up anything for Lent without a view to transformation. It isn't about "self-flagelation" but about transformation. Thanks for the Post.

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