What is Lent and How to Observe It
"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." (Joel 2:12-13, ESV) What is Lent, and how do I actually observe it in a way that means something? Short answer. Lent is the forty days before Easter, running from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (Sundays usually excluded). It began in the early church as a season of fasting and repentance, originally tied to people preparing for baptism, and it settled into a shared rhythm for the whole church. There's no single correct way to keep it. Most people fast from something, take up prayer or Scripture reading, and give more deliberately to others. None of it earns anything from God. It's practice, clearing a room so you can actually see what's in it before Easter morning arrives. Where Lent actually comes from Lent isn't in the Bible as a named observance, you won't find a verse instruc...