This actually took 18 hours to write. At least, I found this one!
I like polling-to get some basic background for essays I invariably write while dealing with insomnia. Sometimes I do this in a rather vague manner, and attempt to keep privacy of all respondees.
I was busy listening to all sorts of "I'm giving up ________" for Lent... when asked, those same people couldn't tell me more than "It's expected of me..." OK....
So I played with the question, Are you giving up or giving to for Lent?
Out of responses, and from watching... I compiled this rambler:
If you read me often, you'll know that I have a habit of analyzing just about everything. For an essay requiring my views on animal research that had to incorporate opposing views- I polled Facebook and the Spazz looking for ideas and input.
I'm not stopping any time soon!
In this season of Sacrifice, commemorating Christ's meditations and temptations by Satan over a 40 day period, during which he dealt with hunger and thirst and Satan's "Just do this and you can have that..."
"Cast down these stones to make bread, Look, I can give you all of this as far as the eye can see..."
As I stated before, I've been asked many a time, "So what are you giving up?"
We all have vices...good heavens. (Pun not intended. I intend to keep writing this, and spelling errors etc. will have to stay in.)
Many give up smoking, only to be overcome by cravings, pain and a tendency to snap and tell off well meaning people with nary a thought. Many give up coffee...some still allowing tea. (Caffeine is caffeine.) On Fridays, and I follow this part, many go back to centuries of tradition only eating fish, no other meat. (Since I'm not too awfully fond of fish, I often substitute plain French fries or a salad.)
A movie, 40 Days and 40 Nights detailed a young man giving up sex for Lent, as it was a teeny-bopper film, it had "hilarious" consequences, of course!
But...
I like to ponder these questions:
1) Faith Vs. Religion.
Faith, we are taught, can move mountains, even if it's the size of a mustard seed. It can allow the Mountain to come to Mohammed.
I've always preferred this: "Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the proof of those not seen"~Hebrews 11:11...I actually had this on a poster on my wall as a child.
A really great way to illustrate this, as Jesus does for Nicodemus is: "You can't see the wind, but you can see what it does." If you cannot see the wind, does what it affects...swaying tree branches, cows being picked up and dropped 50 miles away, not actually happen? Now onto religion-
Religion is, according to Webster's Dictionary:
the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions.Dictionary Dot Com/Religion
So, in a nutshell, faith is about the individual. Who we are. You love God because you cannot imagine anything else. Religion is WHAT we are. You practice certain rituals, hoping they click with your love for, your fervor for God, rather than practicing that love and fervor with a body of others whom you can bear up and who can bear you up when things get tough. (I do not speak for the whole, this is what I observe, everyone is different.)
Ask someone "Who are you?" and they give you a list of what they do nine-tenths of the time. Not often do you hear them tell you WHO they are.
I get cranky sometimes because I hear many who claim to be Christian use it to excuse wrongful behavior, church, prayer and devotion is a chore, and frankly, these "chores" are rubbed in the faces of those who are perceived to be less devout or less worthy. It is when I get cranky that I state: I would prefer to practice faith but am not altogether fond of religion-as I have seen it practiced.
Ah, now onto a question that plagues me at this time of year (Again, the religion/faith plague connection is an unintended pun.) I see too many with a convenient religion, but no faith when put to the test. This kills me.
Give Up or Give To?
Lent is often the time chosen to give up vices just in time to celebrate the trials of Jesus Christ.
But what of helping others, of bearing up others and giving love and help?
Now, this sort of ties in with faith for me:
Is sacrifice masochism when it's done out of faith or is it something else? We're called to be humble and to humble ourselves.
To continue on this vein:
what this was was---haha- a sort of question on the idea of giving up vices which logically will be returned to within 40 days, or sooner, and without the correct spirit, or whether it's about giving problems to a higher power and helping someone out, as part of the whole season of repentance- and whether charity at this time is a mea culpa or an honest effort.
Give up? Yes. Give up troubles and pain, and praise to God. He can take it.
Give to? Yes. Give to others...time, love, honor, respect. Bear up those in pain of all types. Pray without ceasing. In the spirit of repentance. Of hope for the future, of joy of knowing that your God is there, when you need bearing up, and sends ministering angels in all shapes and forms.
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