The Pour Over Today - TPO Explains: What Is Lent and Should You Observe It?

Episode Date: February 14, 2026

Readers of The Pour Over pick a topic to have explained, and Jason and Kathleen have to get Joe to understand it in less than 30 minutes… This week, they’re explaining Lent. Sign up for TPO's New...s Cleanse here Looking to support us? You can choose to pay⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our sponsors! We actually use and enjoy every single one. ⁠⁠Cru⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Wild Alaskan⁠⁠ ⁠⁠HelloFresh⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Safe House Project⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Gloo⁠⁠ ⁠⁠QAVA⁠⁠ ⁠⁠CCCU⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Filament Bible⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Upside⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Mosh⁠⁠ ⁠⁠LMNT⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Not Just Sunday Podcast⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Bible Gateway Plus⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TPO Corrections Page⁠

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's episode is brought to you by our lead sponsor, Crew. We've got a great episode for you today on Lent, starting with what even is Lent? Why is it 40 days long? Do all Christians celebrate and observe Lent? What do the ashes on Ash Wednesday symbolize? What did Martin Luther and John Calvin have to say? What's this fasting thing all about? Why can you only eat fish on Fridays?
Starting point is 00:00:25 Should you even fast before Easter? Is Lent a time for self-help improve? And what does Marty Bra have to do with Lent? All right, folks, get ready to learn all these things and more. Let's dive in. Okay, what are you guys doing for the wives for Valentine's Day? Let's see. This is your warning.
Starting point is 00:00:48 This is your advance notice. This is coming out on Valentine's Day. Yes, so what are you going to be doing? Yeah, I'll go first to give you time to think about what you're doing on the Valentine's Day. To be fair, we're recording this months in advance. Yeah, months in advance. It is not Wednesday, February. something.
Starting point is 00:01:06 11th. You know, I mentioned that Emily is an avid reader, and you were disappointed in the actual number of books. She reads for years because your standards are super high. Well, one of the fiction books that she read is by this author, Emily Henry. Yep. And she was telling me how her book club girls pointed out that there's an Emily Henry book on Netflix. I think it's called like People We Meet on Vacation.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Yep. See, I don't. Okay. So you're, keep me honest here. Well, she the other week said, oh, I'd really love to watch this. And I was like, I don't want to watch this. So I decided, okay, Valentine's Day, rom-com, right? That's what it is.
Starting point is 00:01:47 Yeah. Let's watch it. I haven't seen it. I read the book. Was it a good book? Uh-huh. How many stars on Good Reeds? Did you actually read it?
Starting point is 00:01:58 I did actually read it. I don't remember my, like, gauge for a book on if I say it was a good book is if I like, want to pick it back up and like read it and see what's going on if I want to or if I'm just trying to finish it and for some reason I was in just trying to finish it with that one. I'd like to give another shot. I heard people say great things about it. It just wasn't for me. Yeah, fair enough.
Starting point is 00:02:20 Well, I'm sure Joe will love the movie. I heard it was good. Yeah. So that's what we're doing. Nice. Great. We have plans to do some fun things with the girls throughout the day. for some like activities and stuff.
Starting point is 00:02:37 And then that night, you know, it's hard to get a babysitter on Valentine's Day. Yeah. It feels a little bit like if we ask someone to be the babysitter that there's like, I don't know, we're just like, you look single. I don't know. I don't. So we're staying in, we'll do takeout and we'll watch a movie or a show. Like the day itself won't be super special. How about you?
Starting point is 00:03:02 Todd's amazing. I'm sure he has all sorts of things planned for you. No, Todd's plans were planned for him. He actually asked me when Valentine's Day was. He's like, oh, that's coming up right. And I was like, don't worry. Changes every year. He's coming up right?
Starting point is 00:03:19 It's in February. He has a hard time. He's like, when's Cinco de Mayo? Anyway, we're going to dinner on Monday because I think I could have secured childcare, here, but I did not, and this was like three weeks ago. Most of the places we wanted to go were already booked up. Wow. Like for dinner.
Starting point is 00:03:40 So Saturday, the kids have basketball. So we'll go have some Valentine's basketball. We'll go to like a little Valentine's brunch at my neighbor's house. That'll be cute with like some crafts for the kids. And then for dinner we're going to make heart-shaped pizzas. Make your own pizzas. We're doing that. That was Emily's idea.
Starting point is 00:03:58 Yeah. Yeah. That's what's on the menu. And have a menu night. So it'll be cute. We'll do like family stuff on Saturday and then a dinner date on Monday. Very cool. Reservations have been made.
Starting point is 00:04:08 Reservations have been made. Child care is secured and I sent a calendar invite to Todd's calendar. You know, you should schedule those out for future years. Oh, I. A meeting series once a year. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, recurring. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:24 All right. Should we dive into it? Joe, what are we talking about today? Yes, we are talking about Lent. Yeah. Which I feel should be familiar. Does change. Does?
Starting point is 00:04:35 That's right. Always starts on a Wednesday. Yep. Yes. So, Joe, what is Lent? Or actually, what's your experience with Lent? Did you observe growing up or currently or not at all? No, I did not have really any background with Lent.
Starting point is 00:04:56 I am familiar on principle that it is having a mindset. and heart on fasting or removing things for a period or a season. And I feel like in non-Christian circles and culture, it's just an excuse to kind of like sober up, so to speak. Yeah. You know? So, you know, I have that in my mind more from a secular perspective. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:32 Give up chips or candy or social media or something. Did you observe Lent growing up, Kathleen? Yeah, we always gave something up for Lent. And I seem to remember always choosing to give up Coke. Like, I couldn't have my Coke at dinner on Friday nights. What age is this? I mean, around 13. I vividly have a memory of being at the Mexican restaurant and being like,
Starting point is 00:05:58 I can't have a Coke because I gave it up for Lent. And it was only on Fridays? No, that's just when we went to Mexican. Got it. We gave it up for the whole, like, 40 days. But even, I mean, I guess I didn't realize a lot of people didn't give things up. I thought that's just, like, what you did. Same.
Starting point is 00:06:15 Yeah, people would give up, like, coffee, caffeine. As I got older, I gave up social media. Like, there was always, it's always like, what are you giving up for a lot? Up until, I mean, the last five years, I kind of haven't chosen something as much. Grown soft. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm like, oh, I'm pregnant.
Starting point is 00:06:31 I'm breastfeeding. Can't do that? Yeah. Similarly, it was not like a huge deal, but it was a recurring thing. And honestly, it felt like there wasn't like, didn't plan ahead well. And then we'd realize that it was Ash Wednesday. It's like, ah, shoot, I should figure out something. I guess it's social media again.
Starting point is 00:06:51 Right. Like try to grow in some way. Yeah. But yeah, it was, I didn't realize that the broader perception is that it was a, like, Catholic thing. Right. And in talking with other staff and people at large, that seems to have been most Christians that I'm around, their experiences that it's a Catholic thing and we don't do it. So that was kind of interesting to me. Yeah, that's my experience too and understanding. So yeah, obviously I didn't have a history of growing up and participating in Lent, so I missed the memo.
Starting point is 00:07:25 What is Lent? Great question. So it is a 40-day season of prayer and fasting and repentance leading up to Easter. And 40 is not really the number. It's sort of the number. So it's Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is 46 days before Easter, but it includes the six Sundays, and those are not included in the count. So, yeah, 40-day season of prayer, fasting, repentance, preparing your heart for the resurrection. But that doesn't mean those Sundays you can just have at whatever you were fasting from. Kind of does. The idea is that fasting, like, you know how Jesus in the Bible he's like, you don't
Starting point is 00:08:17 fast when the bridegroom's here, like you fast when he's gone. And so Sunday is supposed to be like the celebration of the Lord's Day. And so, yeah, it's not included in the day of fasting. Yeah, and we'll go through. There's, so Lent is 40, 46 days before Easter, some sort of fasting. And in practice, how that is observed, there's variation. So some people are like Sundays, hey, that's the Lord's Day. It's meant to be a celebration.
Starting point is 00:08:46 We're pre-celebrating Easter. They're not prescribed days of fasting. Right. And abstinent. So it is, I know you said, you know, the tie to Catholicism. And a lot of the history of Lent and the traditions that we'll speak about do have roots in Catholicism. So let's go through the history. You missed the memo.
Starting point is 00:09:11 It started in 325 AD. We're busy that year? Yeah, that was a busy season for me. The council of Nicaea, and there are records from the Council of Nicaea that are talking about this season of fasting before Easter. And it seems that it was originally intended for new converts. And so they would fast before Easter and then they would be baptized on Easter. And then it started to grow into like a broader church community is doing this all together with the new converts. And the practice was one meal a day, sometime after 3 p.m. no meat, no fish, no dairy.
Starting point is 00:09:54 And there were some variations, church to church, region to region of like, are you fasting every day? Is it only weekdays? Is it, you know, six days but not on Sundays? But the general premise has been around since, you know, at least 325 AD. Hey, it's Emily from the pourover. You know how everyone has their gas station for their own set of reasons? Mine is the one that gives me the most cashback on Upside. I'm not just talking about cashback at the gas tank. I even get it on some restaurants and grocery stores in my area.
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Starting point is 00:11:09 No. That's the time that Jesus died. And so it was supposed to be like suffering and like you're fasting, you're not eating. so you're suffering up until the time of his death and then like to commemorate that that's the time he died. Wow. A lot of thought went into all this. It is very rich in like symbolism. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:32 Is the 40 days the time that the Israelites were in Exodus? Yes. Also, Jesus is fast in the wilderness before he launched his public memory and Moses spent 40 days up on Mount Sinai. So again, you're entering. into this kind of rhythm and symbolism that has happened throughout scripture. Right. So we get to Pope Gregory the first in five who I'm assuming this is, yeah, he was Pope from 590 to 604, and he formalized lent.
Starting point is 00:12:08 He put the, he put the like first rules. And it was no fasting on Sundays. So it's a fast, this one meal a day, but you take Sundays. off because they're always considered a celebration for Jesus's resurrection. And that remained largely unchanged, best I could tell, until like 800 AD. And then they started to soften. There's like, hey, you know what, you can a little bit softer on the fast and maybe we introduce another meal or something to keep your strength up while you're working. And by 1400, that was very common practice of there's multiple meals. And,
Starting point is 00:12:49 And then eventually this one meal restriction was lifted entirely. And so in my mind, I kind of thought it was that fasting, like when you, when you were fasting, it was, you know, clear liquids or no food. And that felt aggressive that a lot of the church was doing it for 40 days. But then I'm like trying to justify it. And it's like, well, you take Sundays off and whatever. it was never that extreme. There was always...
Starting point is 00:13:21 At least one meal. As far as I can tell, I did, I spent a lot of time on Catholic websites to learn about this. And it still is generally one meal a day, one full meal a day. But you can have smaller meals. Like you can have a little something in the morning and the evening, but the other meals can't add up to one meal. Like it needs to be one full meal and then you can have smaller things. and like liquids don't necessarily break the fast, even if it's like chicken broth or stuff. I saw that and that it was only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday now.
Starting point is 00:13:57 Yes. So I guess there's actually fasting and abstinence. And so fasting would be eating just one meal per day. And then abstinence would be regulating what you eat. So that is on Fridays where they say, okay, we're just not going to have flesh meat is what they say. Do you have any idea why? No, I know you can have fish. Whole other thing. Remember the whole like fish is not an animal? Oh yeah, Nate. Yeah. Nate claiming. I don't know. He might be on to something. No, Nate claims that fish aren't
Starting point is 00:14:29 an animal, that there's like, you know, animals, plants, and then fish and birds also. It's like, okay, whatever. We won't get into it. According to Catholics, birds are meat, but fish are not. So I don't know. We'll tell Nate to take it up with the Pope. No, I think it's right. Fish aren't animal. Whatever. Anyway. But yeah, why this Friday you can have fish?
Starting point is 00:14:51 You can't have flesh meat because Jesus sacrificed his flesh for us on Good Friday. So it's supposed to like, you know, honor that by not eating flesh meat. But anyway, so fasting and abstinence. Yes. Okay. Moving on throughout history. Yeah. You hit the Protestant Reformation and that's where things should.
Starting point is 00:15:13 change. Okay. And so basically, during the Protestant Reformation, Luther and Calvin were very critical of Lent, of a lot of things, including Lent. And their criticisms were saying that observance of Lent was, it was highly regulated and very rigorous, and it's like, thou shalt do this, thou shalt do that. Yeah, very legalistic. Very legalistic. And that it was, it had become just a, you're keeping the rules for the of keeping the rules. And there was any desire that this was like meant as a pursuit of sanctification had been lost. The article I read said they said Lent seemed, I'm sure they didn't say this, but their vibe
Starting point is 00:15:59 was that Lent seemed like scoring divine brownie points. That does not seem like a Calvin quote directly. I think it's something he said. Here is a direct quote from John Calvin. Does it say brownie points? You'll have to find out that because this part is not the quote, but because Jesus neither taught nor modeled specific times of fasting, that Lent was, quote, therefore merely false seal replete with superstition, which set up a fast under the title and pretext of imitating Christ. So support for fasting, but a rejection of this kind of mandatory fasting imposed by the church. And so then you had this, again, mirroring the larger splits of Christendom,
Starting point is 00:16:49 you had some Protestant denominations that are just like, cool, we're done, there's no Lent, we aren't doing Lent at all. And others, like the Anglicans and Lutherans, retained Lent as a voluntary discipline, but we're saying, hey, we're going to, you know, remove the things that are being criticized. And did you see, so then in the 1600s, like with the Puritans and the colonies, they basically passed laws to forbid the celebration of any holidays not found in the Bible, including Lent and Christmas and Easter Sunday, because like those holidays aren't technically in the Bible.
Starting point is 00:17:24 Like the day on the calendar. Oh, the calendar day. I was like, man, it feels like Jesus was definitely born and definitely raised from the dead. And that those are very... But Easter Sunday? Do we know if it was this, I guess we do? Yeah. I would argue Easter Sunday is in the Bible.
Starting point is 00:17:41 I completely agree that December 25th, it was like... Hold on. Don't drop any truth bombs here. Oh, yeah. Well, I think widely accepted that December 25th was chosen as Jesus is, to celebrate Jesus's birthday, specifically because it was for sure not the day that he was born. And there was like squabble over when to celebrate. And the Pope was like, hey, you're missing the point.
Starting point is 00:18:10 We're just going to choose a third date. And, you know. Okay, did you, while you were looking into this, did you look into the liturgical calendar and like, I've never really looked into it, followed it, known much about it. But this is, but obviously like, Lent is a big deal, a big portion of the liturgical calendar. Correct. And when I was looking into it, it was saying basically like there's a season of light, which would be like Advent and Christmas Epiphany and then a season of life, which
Starting point is 00:18:41 would be like Lent and Easter and Eastertide, which leads up to Pentecost. So it's kind of interesting. But I've always heard like, you know, Christmas was like in winter because, you know, you want to bring light to a dark season. Like they wanted to, I don't know if that's true after what you just said, but like put the holiday somewhere where people need light, you know. But then I guess that kind of brings me to Lent what that word means and where it comes from.
Starting point is 00:19:10 did you look into this? No. You didn't? It's not sure for lentils? No. I don't think so. A core food of the lintin season. Derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for springtime, but literally translated to the lengthening of days.
Starting point is 00:19:29 So obviously it's in the spring. One of the articles I read likened it to like, if you look at the heart of Lent, which we'll talk about lengthening of days and also lengthening our time with Christ, because we're supposed to be like spending more time with him. I thought that was cool. Yeah. Anyway. So I explained to you guys that my familiarity and participation is very limited.
Starting point is 00:19:50 I did have that viewpoint growing up. It's more of a Catholic thing. And in college, I had some friends who were Catholic. And this was my first experience. I remember this. It was Ash Wednesday. And then when I saw them in class and stuff, they had the ash on their forehead.
Starting point is 00:20:08 that was like totally new to me. So you mentioned it starts on Ash Wednesday. Do you guys know what's going on with that symbolism on their forehead and what that's all about? Yeah, so Ash Wednesday, you'll have an Ash Wednesday service where you can go and get ashes put on your forehead. The ashes are actually the palm branches from the previous year's Palm Sunday. They burn those and then mix the ashes with like water or oil. and it's just supposed to symbolize it's supposed to symbolize your mortality
Starting point is 00:20:42 that you're in mourning, that you're kind of stepping into this season of repentance leading up to Easter Sunday. It reminds you of your mortality. Remember that you are dust. So a lot of symbolism. Makes sense, yeah. I also saw the reason they put it in a cross on your forehead.
Starting point is 00:21:04 Oh, I mean, we all know what the crosses. but a good reminder, like, that even as you're reckoning with your sin, like, repentance is right there. Like, it's the cross, which I thought was cool. That is. Yeah. Thanks. So today, modern Lent, you have Ash Wednesday, you have 46 days minus six Sundays and then Easter. And the – so we talked a little bit about how the Catholic Church observes it.
Starting point is 00:21:32 It's now fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday or abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday? The abstinence is only eating fish on Fridays. Okay. Fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Got it. And the fasting on those two days is not necessarily just one meal a day. It's the soft end. It's, well, so it's one meal and two smaller meals that do not total a second meal.
Starting point is 00:21:59 Got it. So that's Catholics. Oh, so this applies to 18 to 59-year-olds. Children 14 and over should abstain from meat on Fridays. Fish is allowed. And I saw the quote, common sense should prevail for exceptions. So if you're pregnant or breastfeeding or mentally or physically ill. That's right.
Starting point is 00:22:22 You can't give up social media. Because you've been pregnant. That's right. Yep. So saith the Catholic Church. You have other denominations. So the Eastern Orthodox Church maintains a very rigorous fasting regimen and perspective. And then you have a number of Protestant or non-denominational churches that reject it entirely.
Starting point is 00:22:52 But generally it feels as though Lent has become less strict while. still being recognizable for the premise of, hey, it's the season before Easter, the idea is that you are reducing consumption of something and making prayer and repentance a higher priority. And there's been a resurgence recently, like in recent decades among Protestants, and evangelicals who have found appreciation for the liturgical calendar, and recognizing that while Lent is not commanded in scripture and observing Lent is not you're not earning your way to heaven in any way. The practices of fasting and prayer and pursuit of sanctification are deeply rooted in scripture. And yeah, and this is a time that historically lots of Christians from lots of different backgrounds
Starting point is 00:23:52 have said, hey, I'm going to, you know, I'm not earning anything, but I'm making a great effort. in this season to pursue Christ and quiet the noise and draw nearer to God. Yeah, that's great. Did you quote John Calvin earlier? I did. So he also had said he did like fasting as a way to prepare for prayer. Like I think there's a, if you look at just the heart behind Lent of like this is a time to just remember that we're heading into like Easter.
Starting point is 00:24:22 I mean, prepare your hearts for Easter and sort of, I don't know, just think more about it. I don't, I think it's a, I enjoyed learning about it and enjoyed learning about the liturgical calendar. And like you said, like people have kind of come around to, I read a lot of Protestant articles talking about like, we should follow the calendar. The calendar is a year, an annual way to remember Jesus's life, like the cycle of his life. Like, why wouldn't you want to be reminded of that? Why wouldn't you want to be more intentional about a season leading up to a day we should celebrate? Well, that's actually a really good transition to a question we got. on Instagram.
Starting point is 00:24:58 Someone asked, I thought it was a Catholic thing. What is Lent and how do we as Christians participate? So we've already covered what it is. But I think to this last discussion that we just had, how do we as Christians participate? I think it's cool to choose to participate. I think if your heart's in the right place, if you're intentionally saying, I want to give something up, there are, there's a few good resource out there. Maybe we can link them in the description, like a gospel coalition article.
Starting point is 00:25:27 on just like what could it mean to fast, like for Christians, more generally speaking. And if your heart behind that is connecting with God, so you're kind of submitting to him saying, I'm choosing to do this to strengthen my relationship with you, to focus on him, you're putting, you know, you're reordering your life and saying, like, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to focus on you. So I'm going to cut something else out. You're depending on him. Let's say you're giving up, like you are giving up food or something.
Starting point is 00:25:54 Like you're going to have to depend on him for strength. Like your heart's in that place because you do want to strengthen your relationship with God. Like I think that can be a pretty cool way to lead into the Easter season. And when I was younger, my pastor would always say if you're going to choose something to fast, like don't just choose it. I don't know. It would be like, oh, I'm going to go on a Daniel fast because I want to see how much weight I'm going to lose. Like give up, you know, your morning coffee. And then in the mornings when you're really wishing you could have a coffee, go to prayer instead.
Starting point is 00:26:21 Or if you're giving up social media when you feel like you want to get on Instagram and scroll, like go to prayer instead, like replace whatever that is or the urge for whatever that is with going to God to strengthen your relationship with him. Yeah, I think the valid criticism of Lentz is that it is just turned into like self-improvement or like, you know, weight loss or whatever. And, you know, you can improve yourself during the Lenton season or any other time of the year, but that is not the purpose of Lent. The purpose of Lent is to, uh,
Starting point is 00:26:56 slow down. It's a season of preparation and remembering our need for grace before the resurrection and drawing closer to Christ. And so like you're saying, what can I remove and what can I add with that specific goal in mind? Right. That's helpful. With over 1,000 translations in every type of decorative addition, it's easy to forget how many people can't even get their hands on a single copy of the Bible in their native language. This is why we've partnered with Krew. Crew has missionaries in almost every country, but they need more Bibles. One missionary said, I have never seen such a thirst for the word of God in my country. Let's quench that thirst. For just $24 a month, you can provide three people with Bibles every month. As a bonus, Krew will provide
Starting point is 00:27:48 meals to 12 hungry individuals through their humanitarian ministry and send you a free P-P-O coffee mug. Simply text pour to 71326 or visit give.cru.org slash pour. Again, that's texting P-O-U-R to 71326 or give.cru.org slash P-O-U-R. Message and data rates may apply available to U.S. addresses only. All right. Kathleen, you're back. I'm back.
Starting point is 00:28:24 It was just me and Jason last time. This is your favorite segment of fun facts. Do you have any for us? Oh, you know I do. So I'll explain myself, but do you know where Marty Girl was invented? Where it was invented? Yeah. I mean, I want to say New Orleans, but that feels very wrong.
Starting point is 00:28:44 So. Mobile, Alabama. Wow. What? I'm saying. What? Okay. Fat Tuesday is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
Starting point is 00:28:53 and it is a tradition actually of the Catholic Church because right before you go into this season of Lent where you can't eat, like you were saying, before they kind of changed up the rules, you couldn't eat any animal products. And so on the last day before Lent, they would have to eat all of their meat, eggs, and milk. And so they called it Fat Tuesday.
Starting point is 00:29:13 And now it's much more broad. So if you think of all the things maybe that you should not be participating in during Lent as you're preparing your heart, you get all of those things out, on Fat Tuesday, so it's not just food, but the sentiment remains that, like, Fat Tuesday was the last party before it's time to get serious. Remember the Linton season. It was a fun fact.
Starting point is 00:29:37 Mobile, Alabama. That's all right. Don't you forget it. I will say the article that I was reading said a lot about New Orleans, and I was like, who's going to fact check this Catholic website? It is not me. Anyway, there's also just a lot of, I thought it was fun to learn about a lot of the symbolism in the Holy Week, which, you know, concludes the Lenton season. And, you know, you have Mondi Thursday and then Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And just, yeah, it's just, there's a lot of symbolism.
Starting point is 00:30:12 And I think a lot of, when I think through the heart behind a lot of these, like, I'm sure. struggling to not call them like rituals, but like, you know, there's ceremony and it's like I was reading about there's a worship service called Stripping the Sanctuary where after a Monday Thursday service, they'll basically very quietly, everybody just takes down all of the decorations in the sanctuary, all of the sacraments, everything, and just it's quiet, it's dark, and it's supposed to symbolize like, okay, you know, we're moving into a period of darkness. and then the light doesn't come back in. Like the candles don't come back in until Easter Sunday.
Starting point is 00:30:55 There's another service, a tenebrae service. I was trying to figure out how to say it before we came in here. We're like basically just as the, there's like scripture readings and maybe the stations of the cross. And as the night progresses, like candles are taken out. And so it gets darker and darker to like. And so it's just, I don't know, it's really neat to think about the choosing to be so intentional to walk through this. and to remember and to not, you know, lest we rush through this season and forget what it's all about. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:27 And I think understanding what all those things are and then experiencing them is combats some of the criticism of saying, yeah, on this Thursday we like take candles out. And it's like you don't get it. And then you end up, it's like, no, you need to take the candles out even though there's no growth or something. sanctification from that. Yeah, it connects with what you were talking about, Jason. We're seeing a movement of folks that want to have more of the understanding and with that tradition in place. Right. Yeah. All right. Should we move on to Christian perspectives? Let's do it.
Starting point is 00:32:09 Mine is choose humility. I went choose humility this time. I feel like this topic, especially talking with so many people and realizing that they were like, oh, I didn't even think I was to celebrate or, you know, participate in Lent. I thought that was like, you know, a Catholic thing. Just, I feel like, unfortunately, Lent could actually cause division among Christians. And anything that has the potential to cause division within the church, like, if you're tempted to split with your brothers and sisters in Christ over secondary and tertiary issues, like, you have to remember that we have a higher calling of unity in Christ. We're supposed to be united in him and have love for everybody. And, you know, that's the bottom line.
Starting point is 00:32:49 That's my question perspective. That's great. Mine is very long, okay? It will take seven weeks to fully appreciate. This is, so the pourover has created a Lenton devotional. And it is, so this is just a pitch to, if you don't know what, if you don't have plans for Lentz, but after this, you want to participate and you're like, wow, this would be good for me to enter into this season of preparation and try to approach Easter with more intentionality. In typical poor over fashion, our devotional will be
Starting point is 00:33:25 focused on the news and saying slowing down to remember our need for grace can often be hindered and distracted by overconsumption of the news or even what is considered normal consumption in the news, but it just becomes a very loud, distracting voice in our life. So we've created a, it starts on Ash Wednesday, and there will be emails that go out every Sunday, one on Ash Wednesday, and one every Sunday. They take probably less than 10 minutes to read. So, and there will be a devotion. The devotion will invite you to ponder an idea related to your relationship with the news.
Starting point is 00:34:09 We'll have a prayer for you to pray, and the prayers are just awesome. Our team, they read like Psalms, but they are, you know, poignant and, yeah, they're really great. And then a short practice to put in to work on throughout the week. And so that's my Christian perspective. It's free. It's free, and it is spread out over a long time. And the hope is that this will help people. Reset.
Starting point is 00:34:38 Reset. Reset. Reced. Yes. Quiet the news so that we can hear from God as we approach Easter. That's awesome. I'm pumped to see that. So there's nothing I need to do to opt into that. Yes. Go to the poreover.org slash lent and put in your email and you'll get the emails. We'll drop the link in the show notes and in the YouTube caption and all that.
Starting point is 00:34:59 Perfect. All right, folks, make sure you sign up. It's a many good one. All right. Thanks, everyone, for joining us on another episode of TPO Explains. As a reminder, you can watch this episode on YouTube and Spotify. make sure to like, comment, and subscribe, and sign up for that Lent Devotional. We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time. Bye.
Starting point is 00:35:23 The noise can be deafening in our chaotic world, but Jesus offers a better way to live. Each week on the Not Just Sunday podcast, pastors Keith Simon and Patrick Miller help you quit part-time Christianity and follow Jesus with every part of your life, so that even in the chaos, experience the beautiful life he offers every day, not just Sundays. Listen to not just Sunday wherever you get your podcasts.

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