I have problems with Lenten sacrifice.
(Perhaps I came to the notion too late?)
I do not think that God asks us to sacrifice chocolate or meat or music
in order to be worthy
of His Love.
This, I do not believe.
Sacrifice is not merely abstaining from meat . . .
. . . all the while knowing how good it will taste come Easter.
Would real sacrifice be a fast before a party?
(When my daughter is banned from her DS, she claims to be glad because she has reading to catch up on. )
Lent is not sacrifice.
God does ask us to sacrifice. To sacrifice and mean it. To sacrifice and take it.
To sacrifice and suffer with it. All the while continuing on, unsure if there will be respite in the end.
This sacrifice God wants us to endure.
How else do you explain Death?
More Sacrifice/Lent poems at read write poem.
All content written by Liza Lee Miller unless otherwise noted.
© 2008, Liza Lee Miller. 
mother. wife. friend. teacher. writer. reader. photographer. birder. quilter. blogger.
Liza Lee Miller 
I agree with you here. God does not ask for sacrifices. By giving up something we are not pleasing GOD.
Maybe we are being selfish..
Broken Lines
A thoughtful post. My understanding of Lent is that it is following the example of Jesus who fasted for forty days and forty nights in preparation for ministry.
I don’t sacrifice pleasures for Lent either. Usually people simply give up what isn’t good for them anyway.
I enjoyed your poetic conversation, a musing in free verse.
i do not believe in a god figure that would expect anything so ridicules from its master creation either.. very well written….
I grew up Catholic and we were forced to sacrifice. It wasn’t until thoughts like you’ve written here started going through my head, that I questioned the idea behind it. Excellent, thought-provoking write!
The lenten fast is a catholic thing – I went to a catholic high school and at lent the sacrifice wasn’t the giving up of sweets. The sacrifice was in donating the money that you would have spent on buying the sweets to the poor box.
I’m a Christian, but my faith doesn’t practice Lent; rather, I fast monthly for 24 hours at a time. I take the money I would have spent on my meals and donate it to a fund to aid those in need. During the fast, I try to refocus my energy away from physical sustenance and direct it toward spiritual nourishment, as a way to draw closer to God. That’s just what works for me.
I think the spiritual component of fasting–whether you are religious or not–is what makes it meaningful: mastery over physical urges as a means to greater spiritual strength and self-discipline. Does that make sense?
You ask some important questions. To me a religion is a social codification of spirituality, the latter being an inner knowing. Thus, people who believe in a God-form do so from this inner self. The rituals, etc, are, I’m sure, added by us to provide social meaning.
I love your response here. Eloquent and passionate. The lines set off by quotes is well applied.
Very thoughtful. My understanding of the fast is that it is a clearing out of things that get in the way of knowing God in our lives.
I suppose during times in history when most people had to do without, the fast was a way to justify their doing without even more.
I like your point that sacrifice and fasting are not games but serious spiritual actis.