{"id":556,"date":"2011-03-09T09:01:06","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T09:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html"},"modified":"2011-03-09T09:01:06","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T09:01:06","slug":"what-are-you-doing-for-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html","title":{"rendered":"What Are you Doing for Lent?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/p>\n

I was a little girl, maybe eight years old. We were
\nEpiscopalians at the time, so all my friends from Sunday School had been
\ntalking about what they were giving up for Lent. Forty days of deprivation,
\nwith lots of speculation as to whether it was cheating to eat (because as a
\nkid, it was almost always food of some sort that we gave up) the desired item
\non Sundays. <\/p>\n

At school, I asked a friend the same question. “I’m a
\nBaptist,” she replied. “We don’t believe in Lent.”<\/p>\n

“Why?” I asked. <\/p>\n

She said she needed to ask her mother. The next day, she
\nreported, “We don’t believe in Lent because we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us
\nevery day of the year.”<\/p>\n

I didn’t know what to say. <\/p>\n

Every year, when Ash Wednesday rolls around, I remember
\nthat conversation as I try to decide if and how I will observe Lent. I’m no
\nlonger an Episcopalian, so my church life is not governed by the liturgical
\ncalendar. I know that God has not commanded me to observe 40 days of Lenten
\nfasting. And yet I also know that Christians have done so throughout the
\ncenturies as a means of remembering the cross and preparing for Good Friday.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

And so I observe Lent, as a way of joining with Christians throughout the centuries and around the globe in the weeks that lead up to our Easter celebration.<\/p>\n

Last year, I gave up alcohol. It was a good way of focusing my mind and attention upon Jesus’, a helpful tool to turn my thoughts to his sacrifice on the cross. And when I think back to my friend’s point, I realize that if I gave up alcohol (or anything else) all year long, it would cease to be connected to Jesus and just turn into one more aspect of my life.<\/p>\n

This year, I’m not giving anything up. Instead, I’m planning to meditate on the cross and the meaning of the cross by reading the Gospel of Mark and Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Jesus’ death has become more wondrous to me with time, but it has also become more puzzling. Perhaps the puzzle is a healthy recognition of mystery. But still, I’m planning to use the next six weeks to consider what happened that day on the outskirts of Jerusalem. I’ll be posting my thoughts and questions on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n

How about you? Do you observe Lent? Are you giving something up? Taking something up? Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was a little girl, maybe eight years old. We were Episcopalians at the time, so all my friends from Sunday School had been talking about what they were giving up for Lent. Forty days of deprivation, with lots of speculation as to whether it was cheating to eat (because as a kid, it was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Are you Doing for Lent? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Are you Doing for Lent? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was a little girl, maybe eight years old. We were Episcopalians at the time, so all my friends from Sunday School had been talking about what they were giving up for Lent. Forty days of deprivation, with lots of speculation as to whether it was cheating to eat (because as a kid, it was…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-09T09:01:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Are you Doing for Lent? - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Are you Doing for Lent? - Thin Places","og_description":"I was a little girl, maybe eight years old. We were Episcopalians at the time, so all my friends from Sunday School had been talking about what they were giving up for Lent. Forty days of deprivation, with lots of speculation as to whether it was cheating to eat (because as a kid, it was…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2011-03-09T09:01:06+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html","name":"What Are you Doing for Lent? - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-09T09:01:06+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-09T09:01:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-are-you-doing-for-lent.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Are you Doing for Lent?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}