Self-reflection in the season of Lent

Lent starts this week -- for those in the Eastern Orthodox Church, it begins today, for other Christians it starts with Ash Wednesday -- and follows the 44 days until Easter. Denominations observe the season differently, from all-day fasts to abstaining from meat on Fridays to giving something up in the name of self-denial.

The purpose of Lent, according to the Web site www.churchyear.net, is "to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity."

Lent was always something we observed in my house growing up, as my father is Catholic and my mother was at the time a Missouri Synod Lutheran (she's now made her way through the ELCA and now LCMC). As children my brother and I were challenged to give something up for Lent -- usually something simple like chocolate or gum or pop.

When I was young, it was just a time of year that we gave something up -- I don't think I ever really understood why. It was just something we did.

Now, though, I know Lent as a season of self-reflection and sacrifice. Instead of picking something that would be relatively easy for me to do without for six weeks, I tend to give up something I would truly miss, something that would require some willpower to maintain the abstinence.

This year I'll be giving up dark soda. Usually I give up Diet Coke, but have found that when I do just one particular brand, there is always a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper waiting in the wings.

What kind of sacrifice is that? Half-hearted, at best. Self-denial and sacrifice during this time of Lent is to remind us of the sacrifice God made in giving "his only begotten son, Jesus Christ." Would that sacrifice have been as meaningful if there were siblings to take the place of Jesus as the Christ child? 

With that question in mind, I had to ask -- do I give up just Diet Coke, or do I abstain from all like-colored soda? The greater sacrifice is to give up all dark soda and -- much like the sacrifice we are asked to remember during this season -- emerge all the better for it.