Lent and Culture
One of my favorite things about Lent is that it's one of the few Christian traditions still widely talked about in our secular society. Other than Christmas shopping and Easter Egg Hunts there are not a lot of other Christian traditions people freely talk about at the water cooler or in the newspapers. But I've seen Lent mentioned in the newspapers quite a bit lately and I was very encouraged when I was watching Regis & Kelly last year to hear Lent being talked about for the first 5 minutes.
Kelly Rippa shared how she gave up cheese for Lent one year and chocolate one year. She went on to explain how she's teaching her kids that a Lenten fast has to be something difficult and meaningful otherwise there's no sacrifice involved. Rippa's guest co-host that day, Mario Lopez, shared how he had given up chocolate one year and coffee one year. Just the fact that these two were so casually and openly talking about their faith in front of tens of millions of viewers was very encouraging to me.
Hearing this on a TV show watched by tens of millions of North Americans was a friendly reminder to me that I'm sharing Lent this year with hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide. To me this is one of the biggest joys of participating in Lent - the feeling of being connected to the Body of Christ worldwide as well as 2000 years of Church history.
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