{"id":94,"date":"2010-02-25T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T09:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html"},"modified":"2010-02-25T09:31:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T09:31:00","slug":"lenten-reflection-cheating-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Lenten Reflection: Cheating God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a vivid memory of an argument about Lent from 4th grade. We were living in North Carolina, and my family (and their social circle, thus, most of the families I knew) attended an Episcopalian church. Observing Lent was a given.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
I asked my best friend at school, “What are you giving up for Lent?”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I’m not giving anything up. My mom says that if you give something up for God, you should do it all year round.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
She had me stumped. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Then there were my college friends who gave up sugar, carbs, fried foods. Lent as a diet plan. It didn’t quite sit right with me.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And, finally, there were all those discussions about whether it was “cheating” to break the fast on Sundays. Somewhere in high school, I gave up Lent altogether. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Decades later, I’m back (see Lenten Reflections: Disruptive Grace<\/a> for more on that decision), and those school-years questions have surfaced again. Is this practice about keeping rules rather than recognizing God’s grace? Why only forty days? And what’s the deal with Sunday? <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Turns out that forty is a Biblical number of completion. The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days. So Lent is meant to be a barren time, a time of preparation for Good Friday and Easter. But if you take out a calendar and count from Ash Wednesday to Easter, you’ll notice there are forty-five days. Sundays aren’t a part of Lent, after all. We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection every seven days, Lenten fasting or not.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer explains Lent like this:<\/div>\n
The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church…<\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. <\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My 4th grade friend was right. Lent is a human creation. It’s not necessary. It’s not an obligation. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And yet, my liturgical roots have something to offer as well. This Lenten season, I will continue the fast. And I will continue to recognize the abundant grace of God through a weekly feast. And I will trust that these forty days provide an opportunity to set my heart towards Easter, the culmination of the Christian year. These forty days reorient me toward celebration and gratitude, towards grace. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a vivid memory of an argument about Lent from 4th grade. We were living in North Carolina, and my family (and their social circle, thus, most of the families I knew) attended an Episcopalian church. Observing Lent was a given. I asked my best friend at school, “What are you giving up for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nLenten Reflection: Cheating God? - 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\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lenten Reflection: Cheating God? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a vivid memory of an argument about Lent from 4th grade. We were living in North Carolina, and my family (and their social circle, thus, most of the families I knew) attended an Episcopalian church. Observing Lent was a given. I asked my best friend at school, “What are you giving up for…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-25T09:31:00+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":"Lenten Reflection: Cheating God? - 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\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lenten Reflection: Cheating God? - Thin Places","og_description":"I have a vivid memory of an argument about Lent from 4th grade. We were living in North Carolina, and my family (and their social circle, thus, most of the families I knew) attended an Episcopalian church. Observing Lent was a given. I asked my best friend at school, “What are you giving up for…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-02-25T09:31:00+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html","name":"Lenten Reflection: Cheating God? - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-02-25T09:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-02-25T09:31:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/02\/lenten-reflection-cheating-god.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lenten Reflection: Cheating God?"}]},{"@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\/94","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=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}