The Battle of Lent

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Lent is nearly over, and different people have practiced different forms of sacrifice through this time. Fasting, giving up some things, making a change for the better are some. Bringing in change, overcome negative or bad habits, reviving faith and sacrificing self for renewal in God are some outcomes which we try and achieve during this time. For some, it ends at the end of the period, for a few it continues to the next lent when we further renew ourselves.

It seems, every lent is Gods battle to renew us. For us, it is a battle between self-seeking motivation, self-will and folly on the one hand and God's expectation on the other. The human mentality which tells us to enjoy the day with physical pleasures as against our aspiration to enjoy the day with Gods peace. This has been depicted so well in the painting by Peter Bregel the Elder in his painting titles the Fight between Carnival and Lent, which is the cover photo. 

THE sadness is that while we become or try to become an ideal follower of Gods way, after lent we sort of backslide and revert back to our old self. This seems to be a self-defeating purpose to observe lent sacrifices and then backslide. Did Jesus, whose death and resurrection we celebrate, backslide? If He had, we would not be writing or reading this blog, there would be no churches and there would be no such thing as the Christian.