40 days and 40 nights.

You have your vices and I have mine.

For K - cause she asked first! I had a hard time writing this one only because, like I've said previously, I'm not an authority on Christianity and I truly believe that every individuals feelings and relationship with God, Jesus and the church, is personal. I don't believe in forcing my opinions on anyone and I don't feel anyone else has the right to force their opinions on me. I personally don't think you have to go to a church to believe in God or Jesus or anything biblical. I don't think there is only one religion - Jewish, Muslim, Christian, whatever! I do however, believe a relationship with whomever your God is can be extremely important and fulfilling in your life. I'm a scientist and a believer in faith. And now, on with the blog...

Easter has just passed and with it the sorrow, suffering and retrospection of Lent. Not everyone who practices the religion of Christianity recognizes Lent and not all of us who do observe in the same manner or time frame. As with religion itself, it means different things to different people.

For me, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday which means a big meal of pancakes on the Tuesday (to prep you for the fasting - I don't fast for Lent. I'm not that strong but I like pancakes and so this is just a bonus day) and ends on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. It is a reminder of the suffering (through fasting and through personal reflection) and preparation that Jesus Christ felt while walking through the desert in search of meaning and to gain the "confidence" (wrong word here but couldn't think of the right one) to lead God's people to righteousness and on the fortieth day, his battle with the devil (a test of his belief in God).

Most Christians "give up" something for lent - a fasting of sorts - and/or choose to spend this time increasing their relationship with God and Jesus. I'm not deep. I don't pray every day for 40 days (just so you know, the Sundays in Lent are 'free' days - kind of like an Easter days), I don't starve myself, I don't do something monumental... I give up chocolate and this year, I just gave up chocolate candy - M&M's in particular. Seems easy right? Yah, on the second day of Lent I did a "whoopsy" and took a bite out of a truffle. As soon as it hit my mouth I stared in disbelief! I spit the rest out and looked around like a 5 year old to see if I had been caught. The guilt is overwhelming and sort of ridiculous to someone not used to Lent practises.

Now that Lent is over I have eaten my fair share (and all of yours, and yours, and yours) of chocolate candies. I'm thinking I might have to go buy a bigger size of pant. It's bad. I have chocolate everywhere. It's so pathetic that I actually had chocolate imported from Canada - some chocolate bars we have there that we don't have here... I'm weak. I couldn't have saved all your souls. I would have felt bad about it though...

Need more information? Check out Wikipedia (really???), The Season of Lent, or for gosh sakes, open a bible (Mathew 3: 13-16, Mathew 4: 1-11, Luke 4: 1-13)!