I asked a friend today why Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent.  She referred me to Google.  So that's what I did.  Googled.

Bare bones bottom line:  Abstaining from meat is a way to pay penance.

That moment when you discover what you're doing doesn't line up with your faith...

Let me state up front that I am not bashing, criticizing, judging, or doing anything else negative toward Catholics.  I have very good friends who are Catholic and I know Christians who are Catholic.  But I also realize that not all Catholics are Christians, just as not all Baptists, Methodists, or Presbyterians are Christians.  Many church-goers, regardless of their denomination, are merely religious.  They follow all the rules, hit all the man-made marks.  But they miss the relationship.  And that's where this information of penance fell for me.  Making the mark.  Missing the point.

And I thought about all the people in the world who are giving things up for Lent.  Things like meat, chocolate, sugar, soda, social media, and television.  How many of us have a reason for doing it, and how many are doing it just because it's the religious thing to do?  How many are doing it to try to make up for their sins?  How many even know that's why the tradition started in the first place?

Praise Jesus for bearing my sins on the cross and paying my penance for me!  Praise Him for being my penance!  There's not a single thing in this world that could ever repay Him, that can ever wipe away the permanent stain of my sin.  Only His blood can make me clean, can allow me to stand in the holy presence of Yahweh and be declared righteous.

That said, I'm still giving up television.  Not because I'm trying to prove something or make Him like me more, but to know Him more and sync my heart with His.

"You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water."  -Psalm 63:1