Tuesday was National Pancake Day, as established by IHOP and the Shriners. From 7am to 10pm IHOP was serving a free short stack (3 pancakes) to everyone who wanted it. I, of course, took full advantage of the situation. I went for every meal. That equals 9 pancakes, 2 scrambled eggs, and 2 sausage links. Man, it was good. And it only cost me about $3.50. Sweet! I put a different flavor of syrup on the pancakes at each meal: butter pecan, strawberry, and maple. It was so tasty!
Lent has begun. I don't like the idea of Lent or New Years resolutions or anything like that. If you're going to start/stop doing something, why wait? Why not just start/stop whatever it is you want to start/stop? I don't get it. It seems like these are just excuses to keep face with others. Once Lent is done, I doubt anyone will continue with whatever it is they did for it. Isn't the purpose to be closer to God? Why would you want to stop being close to God? I don't get it. I guess that's why I'm not Catholic.
3 comments:
i hate beating dead horses. it's kinda pointless, but i'm going to take another club to this one. you're right. a lot of people treat lent like everyone treats going to church. it's something they do once a week to check off their list and save face. it's going through the motions. you do it. i do it. every christian does it at one point in their lives. the point of lent isn't "what" you give up. it never should be. you don't give something up for the sake of giving it up. when christians (not necessarily catholic) do lent, they are identifying themselves to Christ when they say that they'll give something up to God. it's like baptism. why get baptized? it identifies you as a christian, yet once you get baptized, you don't ever remember it. so why get baptized in the first place? tradition. same with taking communion. you do it once a month. why wait till communion to repent and get closer to God? you shouldn't, but when that cup comes around and you're faced with remember our Savior, tradition brings your focus back where it should've been in the first place. most of the time when people finish taking communion they act the same before they took it, because they like to go through the motions. it's the same with lent. you shouldn't diss lent when your problem is with tradition in general.
Those pancakes were amazing. I ate six of them - plenty for me. And it was just fun to have a special occasion to eat together, with people that I don't usually eat with.
Hmm, lent...if I do it, I want it to be more than just something to brag about (i.e. "I can give up more than you can" etc.). I want it to actually make me more diligent in keeping up my relationship with God. Since the jury is still out for me, I think this time I'm going to take one day at a time and keep praying about it. I agree on both sides - I think it can be good to do something special, making a monument of sorts, but I also want it to change my lifestyle for more than just 40 days. That's my two cents. :-)
I agree wholeheartedly Ben. We christians have really taken things for granted and just do things just because we are used to doing it every year where we lose the meaning of our traditions. I plan only to observe Lent if I feel that its truly necessary.
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