Lent: Goodbye TV
Posted by Amanda on February 6th, 2008 . Filed under: Christianity, Personal .I’ve never celebrated Lent. Ever. It wasn’t something we did when I was growing up. The only reason I ever knew about it was because my best friend in high school was Catholic, and she always gave up chocolate.
I thought it was weird.
But something has happened to me this year. You all know of my faith struggles. I’ve been completely open and transparent here where my faith is concerned. I recently wrote about a spiritual renewal I had last week in California. It continued last night at the Casting Crowns concert in Colorado Springs.
For the first time in a year, I actually felt the presence of God.
And it came at this time of year… today is the first day of Lent.
From Wikipedia:
Lent, in most Christian denominations, is the forty-day liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter.[1] The forty days represent the time Jesus spent in the desert, where, according to the Bible, he endured temptation by Satan.[2] Different churches will calculate the forty days differently.
The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial—for the annual commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, as celebrated during Holy Week, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Sitting in the concert last night listening to Mark Hall speak (and no, it wasn’t about Lent), I was struck by how many things in my life I elevate above God (pretty much everything). Since it was the day before Lent, I decided I would do something about it. The thing that gets the most time from me each day is TV. I spend a lot of time watching TV on DVD or TV online.
So I decided to give up TV shows for Lent.
40 days of spending more time with God and less time with TV.
I may not make it. Part of me feels like I’ll die without TV. Once I started thinking about this last night, American Idol popped into my head. I immediately started trying to backtrack.
I can’t give up TV! What about American Idol?
What if I only watch American Idol each week?
Those thoughts stopped me. Was I honestly saying that American Idol was more important to me than God? That’s exactly what I was saying.
So I’m stopping. Cold turkey.
For the next six weeks, I’m going to give up all forms of television shows. That means no Charmed. No Roswell. No Firefly. And no American Idol.
But this will give me plenty of time to work on my relationship with Jesus.
So goodbye, TV. See you in 6 weeks or so. Miss me.
February 6th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Wow. I have to say I’m a little convicted by your post. And thanks for the extra info about Lent. I never knew it had anything to do with Jesus’ temptation in the desert. It makes a little more sense to me now than it did before.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Hello, Amanda! I found your blog through John Hobbins’.
May God help you in the struggle to make Him the indisputable first priority of your life–this is, after all, the entire point of Lent, and of the Christian life! I belong to a Church (Eastern Orthodox) with with incredibly strict Lenten observances, but the whole thing would just be a big phony fiasco if this radical God-centeredness were not kept in mind at all times as the true goal of all our efforts. Again, may God help you and me both to get there!
February 6th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I will use my keen powers of insight and prescience to predict that your blogging will be prolific and detailed, and your bookshelf will need more space for all the books you’ll be reading.
Keep us updated!
February 6th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Ohh man, we were at the same concert. I would have loved to actually meet you in person.
I agree that the concert was awesome. I am turning in early tonight though. That was a late night for me (and I am sure for you even more so)
February 6th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Definitely a late night - I ended up coming home from work early because my tiredness was making me feel sick.
But it was absolutely worth it.
February 7th, 2008 at 2:39 am
I typically give stuff up for Lent. I was talking to someone about it. She said that she wanted to make a permenent change and what she “gave up” or “doing something else” for Lent, she doesn’t want to return to her previous ways. She said that last year she gave up two meals. I think she was doing that in hopes of losing weight, but it didn’t work.
Good luck with giving up TV. But you know that also means you shouldn’t get online to check American Idol results because then, you might as well watch TV.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Wow, good for you, I hope you pull it off! We have Lent as part of the church calendar in the UK although we are not a Catholic church. We also have Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday as part of Lent. I’m not sure if these are just British traditions.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Sorry, I should have said we are not a Roman Catholic church because we are indeed a catholic church. Semantics again.
February 7th, 2008 at 8:24 am
[…] I was going to hold of on Lenten posts, but here are three. A first on fasting, a choice of fast as lifestyle change, and Lent from the non-denominational evangelical perspective. On the last, where Denise writes: […]
February 7th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I’m so proud of you. That would be like my husband giving up the gym. (Which he’s going to start to do, by the way!) And I’m so glad God touched your heart again last night. I know you’ve missed him. ::hug::
February 8th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I’m going through the same thing. Read my post at http://peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com. Today was harder than the first two. While at my site, vote in my poll on what is a good replacement for TV and radio and the newspaper?