This year for Lent I decided to give up Coffee. This is a
big deal for me because I love coffee; it is one of the things that makes life
beautiful to me. I am also, by nature of the 2-3 cups I drink per day, addicted
to the caffeine within the coffee like all other coffee drinkers out there. I
anticipated that the forty day fast from coffee was going to be challenging,
and also a little sad. Lent about half
way through now and here is what I have to report: the most challenging part of
this whole thing has been not complaining about how I want coffee and cannot
have it.
Just so that we are on the same page, let me briefly explain
what Lent is and why I do it. Lent is the forty day period leading up to Easter
that starts on Ash Wednesday. In old church tradition there was a baptism held
on Easter and Lent was a time for those who would be baptized to prepare
themselves. The forty days is based on the forty days that Jesus fasted in the
wilderness.[1]
The point of Lent is to change something in your regular life that allows you
to focus more on God. Common examples of Lent practices are fasting from
Netflix, or from social media, or from coffee. Lent is often associated with
the Catholic Church but it is something that any church might be found
observing.
I usually observe lent for one big, broad reason and one more
specific reason. From a big picture perspective, I observe lent because the
point is to focus more on God; and I want to focus more on God. From a more
specific perspective lent provides me with a chance to remember that I am not
dependent on anything but God; and I am whole dependent on Him. Every time I
wish I could have coffee I am reminded that I am not having coffee because I am
choosing to declare specifically that I am not dependent on coffee but on God.
To complain about how I miss coffee during this season of
Lent would really be the entire opposite of the point. To complain about it
would be to declare that A) I do actually depend on coffee and not God, and B)
my attitude is also entirely dependent on my having coffee and I am not strong
enough to maintain a good attitude without it.
Now here is the hard part: these
things are still true apart from Lent. Man, the truth hits hard sometimes.
I am not necessarily saying that it is a sin to complain,
but it is something with which we have to be very careful. The things that we
say and the way that we act are demonstrations what is going on in our heart,
which we call our attitude. And this is the thing that God cares the most
about. Jesus says that “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up
in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in
his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”[2]
When we complain, it shows that we are not trusting that God will care for us.
So it’s not that complaining is always wrong, but the amount that we complain
shows how much we actually believe God.
I didn’t expect that managing my complaints to be the most
challenging part of give up coffee. I’ve learned how much I complain about
small things and, to be honest, it shows how little I tend to trust that God
will take care of the small things. So you ask “can giving up coffee for 40
days really bring you closer to God?” Yes, it absolutely can.
