Fat Tuesday

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of Lent. It is a time of fasting to be more focused on Christ as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection. Growing up as a Protestant, I never celebrated Lent. I honestly didn't know really what it was until college, and during that time I did engage in the season. But all of that begins tomorrow. Which makes today Fat Tuesday.

Today is a day to indulge and live it up, or sin it up as I've heard it said before. You do everything you can't do for the next 40 days, so you have one last hoorah before you have to behave. It makes the next forty days seem like a bit of a religious ritual that is done out of obligation. And yet as I've thought about it today, I wonder how many of us live our lives like it's Fat Tuesday.

Think about it. How many people live like they have all the time in the world? Or how many live with the intention of turning to Jesus later? I was out with my wife on Valentine's Day and I overheard a conversation between our server and the people sitting next to us. He was telling them that he was young, and now was the time for enjoying life, he'd worry about religion later. I've met a lot of people like that over the years.

I've also met a lot of people who live life like Lent is obligatory. The do things because they are supposed to in order to make God happy so they can get to Heaven. But it isn't heart felt and it misses the point dramatically.

And then there are those who live Lent everyday. Their lives are committed to fully serving and glorifying God. They have sacrificed things so that they can grow closer to Him. They have given up things so that they can become more like Christ. Their focus is on celebrating with the resurrected Lord, and they live like it every day.

Which category do you fall into? Is your life Fat Tuesday, full of indulgence and living it up as much as you can before you have to clean up? Just a heads up, life isn't predictable. It doesn't have a visual clock that declares Ash Wednesday is here it's time to behave. We don't know when it's going to end.

Is your life the obligatory Lent? Do you do things because you're supposed to, because it's what's expected? Do you realize the joy you're missing out on? Or the blessings? God has incredible things to show you and you are unable to see them because of the half-hearted attitude you go through life with.

Are you living Lent? Is your life spent focused fully on God and looking forward to the resurrection daily? Look at all that God has shown you. Look at how you've changed and grown. It's because of how you've chosen to live your life.

Now, which one do you want to be? Tomorrow begins the season of Lent. It can be a time of growth for you if you choose to invest yourself in it. It can be a time of growing closer to God than you ever have before, and a time of learning to trust Him in ways you didn't know where possible. It can be if you're willing to live it. And it can be the start of a whole new life. It doesn't end at Easter, but continues until we participate in the resurrection.

How do you want to live? Time is short, and you don't know when it's going to run out. Fat Tuesday or Lent, you decide.

"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."

To God alone be the Glory!

Peace be with you