"Give up sin not chocolate" misses the point of Lent

There is a local Evangelical church around here that really seems to be anti-Lent. One year they had a sign that read 'Give up sin not chocolate'.

They don't seem to understand what the point of Lent is. Sin is something that those of us who are Christians are called to give up 100% of the time, not just for Lent. The things we give up for Lent--- chocolate, meat and such--- are GOOD things, not sins.

We give them up in the same spirit that the Old Testament saints gave up their finely woven clothes for a time and wore sackcloth, and poured ashes on their head (something echoed in the Ash Wednesday tradition). They did this as a sign of mourning. Most particularly, mourning for sin.

Lent is a tradition which has arisen among Christians as a time to prepare for Easter by mourning for our sins--- our INDIVIDUAL sins. Face it: by the time you reached age nine you'd committed enough personal sin that even if no other person on Earth had sinned, Jesus would have had to come down and die to pay for YOURS.

As a sign of this mourning, we may choose to give up something that is good. That's a part of the Christian life, by the way. We often may have to give up something that is good for the sake of the Kingdom. For some, the good they give up may be their life, as even today Christians in some parts of the world face a martyr's death, as that Christian pastor in Iran might face death if he refuses to become Muslim.

I personally am a Catholic convert, because I was convinced by the historical evidence that the Catholic Church is indeed the Church Jesus established and has the teaching authority that Jesus had while on Earth and which He passed on to His Apostles. So when the Church says to observe Lent, I am bound to do so.

Others of my Christian friends do not agree with my conclusion about the Catholic Church, and that is fine. I leave it to God to straighten out whoever is in error on this issue. But all Christians are bound to a life that includes mourning for our sins--- true repentance. We need a time of year for this, such as Lent. We need a little of it in our lives every day, as we confront the daily temptations to sin in our lives--- including the sins of omission such as the times we've failed to speak out against abortion/euthanasia, or the times we could have given to the poor but didn't, or the time we could have spoken to an unattractive but lonely person.

For me personally it's hard to figure out how to do Lent. I have a hard time sticking to anything. Furthermore, Lenten observances that are dietary restrictions are a real chore as with my health situation I have to restrict quite severely every day. With my attention deficit thing (a part of my Asperger Syndrome) it's hard to do things like pray the rosary or read the Bible every day because I get so distracted. And I have a tendency to think up really wild bizarre Lenten things to do that are more about obsessiveness than the spiritual life--- last year I seriously considered watching the movie Con Air each day during Lent.

But God knows the barriers each of us are dealing with. He doesn't need us to be perfect at our attempts, He just wants us to make them.