Fat Tuesday???

Today, many people in the church (and maybe more outside of it) celebrate Fat Tuesday (AKA: Paczki Day if you're Polish, or Pancake Day if you're Canadian): the day before Ash Wednesday, the last day before Lent begins, the final day of Mardi Gras, the last chance to party and load up on delicious junk food before we're supposed to start fasting and temporarily giving up some of our favorite treats!

But is this how we really ought to be looking at this day?

If you're celebrating Lent, then you might know that it is a 40 day season (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter where Christians look forward to Christ's death, burial & resurrection, contemplate His suffering, and focus on personal reflection and repentance.

Typically at this time Christians will give up something, be it a favorite food or activity, and will spend various days fasting, in order to aid them in personal reflection. Since this time lasts about a month-and-a-half, I can see why people would want to get one last day of indulgence in first.

What's interesting, though, is that historically, this day was known as Shrove Tuesday, and instead of seeing it as a day of indulgence, it was seen as a day of preparation for Lent. Instead of eating pounds of pastries, people spent time in prayer and confession so their hearts would be ready to focus on Christ.

So how did the focus shift from prayer to partying? While I'm not totally sure, I don't think it's all that hard to imagine a reason. We're human. By nature we don't like to deprive ourselves of the things we want. I'm sure we can all think of times when we've over-indulged on something because we knew we wouldn't have it again for a while (I know I can).

Perhaps the question for us, then, is how should we respond? Can we turn "Fat Tuesday" back into "Shrove Tuesday?" What about the rest of the year? Are we capable of disciplining ourselves when we really want something that we know we ought to stay away from? Can we turn our focus from ourselves to God even when our cravings and desires are saying "no?"

Let's get the discussion going!

-Steve