What are you giving up?

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Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, or the more "English," "Shrove Tuesday" has long been a part of my family of origin's annual traditions. I never quite made it to New Orleans, or Mobile, for that matter, but I did go down to Galveston a couple of times. Culturally, Mardi Gras has become a popular party time, or feast time, as the church might call it. I thoroughly enjoyed the parade last year in Port Aransas, and we will be in it again this year, before we head back for the pancake supper.

What we tend to forget about, culturally, is what happens after Mardi Gras. After Tuesday comes Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. It marks the first day of Lent, and the beginning of the holy season that helps us prepare for the experience of Resurrection at Easter. Ash Wednesday and Lent are also a part of my family's annual traditions. Mardi Gras only makes sense to me when it precedes Ash Wednesday. One last celebratory feast before digging into the season of prayer, fasting, and meditating on God's Holy Word.

Giving up something is one approach to observing Lent, but another and perhaps more meaningful approach is to take on something new. Even better if the taking on something new replaces something that would be given up. A friend of mine likes to take on a practice of prayer while  he is driving during Lent. He gives up turning on the radio in his car, and that reminds him to pray while he drives (with his eyes open, of course.) The point of all this taking on and giving up is about intentionally spending time with God. That can happen in a wide variety of ways. I always try to take on some small thing that I can actually stick with for 40 days. Some little change that can help me, day by day, to connect with God.

Of course, just as Mardi Gras doesn't make sense without Ash Wednesday, so, Lent makes no sense
without Easter. It is all about what happens in the Easter experience. Lenten disciplines prepare our hearts for the experience of remembering Christ's death and Resurrection. Taking on and giving up during lent is about clearing away the clutter we build up in our lives, and adhering to the good things that reconnect us with God. It is important to seek to always do things that reconnect us with God, but some of us tend to get off track. I get distracted from always doing what God calls me to be doing. Lent is one of those times of the year when I can return my attention to God. Return, reconnect: get religious. The word religion means to connect again. That's what this is all about.

I hope to see you at the Mardi Gras parade on March 4. Perhaps this reminder about what follows (Ash Wednesday) can be a reminder to reconnect with God this season by giving something up, or taking on something to prepare for the Easter experience.

Originally published in the Port Aransas Newspaper, "The South Jetty."

Ash Wednesday Services here are at 9:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.

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