One of the Christian traditions that many evangelical Christians have never experienced is lent. While this tradition isn’t important to a person’s salvation or anything along those lines, tradition can help us prepare for big celebrations in the life of the church and see that our faith today is part of a larger story that goes back centuries. Here is how the Christian Research Institute describes lent:
Originating in the fourth century of the church, the season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday and climaxing during Holy Week with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and concluding Saturday before Easter. Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized, a time of concentrated study and prayer before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord early on Easter Sunday. But since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. Also, this was the time when those who had been separated from the Church would prepare to rejoin the community.
Today, Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter . . . The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission and calling. Christians today use this period of time for introspection, self examination, and repentance. (Source)
In the last hundred years, the observance of lent has generally been about giving something up, like meat or chocolate. However, I think a better way to celebrate lent is not to focus on the 40 day period itself, but to use it as a time to start something larger. Maybe you haven’t been at all consistent about praying. Commit to use lent to jump start your prayer life–but don’t stop when lent is over. Maybe you have stuff in your life that seperates you from God. Use lent to get rid of those things and draw closer to God–but don’t let that junk back in when lent is over.
Lent was originally intended to be a time of personal growth, and while simply giving something that you enjoy up for several weeks can remind you of Jesus’ suffering, I feel that it’s more beneficial and more historically accurate to see lent as a time of new beginnings and preparation instead of a period of self denial.