19 Lent Intro

Lent is right around the corner so I want to begin talking about it now since people have different opinions of it…

Is the place you live in considered a town or a city, a burg or a hamlet?  Is it urban or rural?  Do you tell people to go “down” or “up” your street or do you give north/south/east/west directions?  Do you live in a duplex or a half-double house?  A rancher or a single home?  Does what you call it or how you give directions change the place you live?

We too often get hung up on terminology and if someone doesn’t call things by the same label we use, we get bent out of shape like Gumby.  Albeit sometimes a correct name/label is necessary for identification purposes but it doesn’t change the content. Guilt by association is something that’s important in a crime situation and affects who you hang out with.  But in other things in life, we should take a closer look and see if associating things only with a certain person or group or celebration is always correct.  In Romans 14 Paul talks about the issue of eating or not eating certain foods which I feel is applicable to the topic of Lent.

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink,
but of living a life of goodness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 14:17, NLT

For years I steered away from anything Santa Claus for various reasons.  I know, this post is supposed to be about Lent, but hear me out.  I still don’t buy into that whole aspect of Christmas but to keep peace in my extended family when my kids were little,  I had to back off.  However, I made sure they knew the true meaning of Christmas and that Santa was just a fictional fun part of Christmas.  I go along with it if parents of children I know say their kids still “believe” but I don’t encourage it.  That’s their decision.

So it’s called Christmas and we celebrate it on December 25, but is the name and the date in the Bible anywhere?  While we’re on Christmas, what about Advent?  I’m sure it has different meaning to different faiths and is celebrated in different ways.  If you celebrate in a different way for different reasons than me, would you be ok with me celebrating differently?  Does it matter if you hang decorations and I light candles? Are you going to stop celebrating the birth of our Lord just because another person or church believes or celebrates Christmas differently?  It’s WHAT we are celebrating and WHY that is important.

Advent means the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.  Why not celebrate Advent when it means Jesus is coming?  I like to celebrate all month, not just Christmas Eve and Day.  It’s a time of preparation leading up to the birth of our Lord.  If you don’t like the term Advent, then come up with a new title, but do celebrate the coming of our Lord without criticizing those who want to celebrate it under the label of Advent.

So the title of this post was Lent and you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about Christmas and Advent.  Well Jesus had to be born before He could die!  I needed to get your attention and to lay the groundwork to see some things in a different light before we move on to Lent.  In the next post I’ll start talking about Lent … Don’t go away.  It might shed some light on why some born again believers look forward to Lent and ways in which it’s OK to observe the season of Lent and use it to honor the Lord.