Well first off, I want to say that for some of you life without a television is absolutely normal. Maybe you don’t have a tele or have one and don’t really watch it. For others however that statement may strike fear in your heart inducing an instant anxiety grab-the-remote-as-fast-as-you-can kind of feeling. For Loretta and I it’s somewhere in between.
But the fact that it was lent began last (Ash) Wednesday, our small groups study of spiritual disciplines, and that we’ve been talking about it for quite sometime finally led us to make this decision. Our bluff has been called.
Traditionally Lent is a forty day journey of preparation before Easter. From what I’ve read and understood, it is a way of not letting Easter creep up on you. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus which is so essential to the Christian faith is not to be taken lightly. Just as the season of Advent prepares us for Christ’s birth, so Lent prepares us for the ultimate purpose he served on earth.
Lent usually includes fasting from foods, but as we are doing with television, others have fasted from many different things as a way of preparing. A helpful way to understanding what it means to fast that I’ve heard is that it is, “saying ‘no’ to something in order to be able to say ‘yes’ to something else.”
We’re saying no to television. But what are we saying yes to? Good question. Well, personally I’m hoping to listen to more music, play a little more guitar and spend more time hitting the books since there is no lack of work for me to do as a student. We’ll see how it goes
So far all I can tell you is that our living room looks completely different. At first I was just going to throw a towel over it but I thought since it was at least going to be a month without any use I might as well put it away. So it’s gone. The big tube TV stashed under our desk. And I must say I feel a sense of relief. I really don’t know why.
The writers ended their strike?
Darn it.
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thanks for that explanation of Lent. It was helpful... saying "No" in order to say "Yes" to something else... hmm... there are a lot of things we should do but don't!