“What are you giving up for Lent?” This is a popular question at this time of year. It’s a question we ask our family and friends, and a question we consider for ourselves as we observe Ash Wednesday and begin the season of Lent. One way that Christians sometimes observe the season of Lent is to practice an act of self-denial and go without something during these 40 days leading up to Easter.

            A wife commented that one year her husband gave up coffee for Lent. She said it was a very rough 40 days.

            Another person said he gave up sodas and resolved to give the money he saved to a local charity. He confessed that he only made it partway through the 40 days before he resumed his habit of getting a soda from the vending machine each afternoon. He did, however, continue to save an amount of money equal to the cost of each soda he purchased, and at the end of Lent he fulfilled his promise to give to the local charity.

Three questions

            As we observe Ash Wednesday, we are reminded of our own mortality: “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” Yet, we know that ashes and dust will not be the end of our story. The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, but it ends with Easter. It begins with ashes, but it ends with resurrection and the promise of eternal life.

            Lent is one of two seasons of preparation on the Christian calendar. The other season of preparation is Advent. Just as there is often a question associated with Lent — “What are you going to give up?” — there is a question commonly associated with Advent: “What do you want for Christmas?” The two questions seem to be opposites: “What do you want?” versus “What are you giving up?” Yet, in truth, they are closely related. Isn’t it true, after all, that when we give up something, we are in fact hoping to receive something else in return? For exa

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