Today is Marti Gras or Fat Tuesday, the day many descend into debauchery right before Lent, the 40 days prior to Easter. I don't practice Lent myself, but I have no problem with people preparing themselves for the Easter celebration with sacrifice and fasting. I don't want to focus on giving things up and eating fish on Friday, but rather the activities on Tuesday. The party called Marti Gras.
I think that Marti Gras is indicative of human behavior, we think we should experience something before we give it up. We want to be bad and we will be good later. We will stop smoking, drinking, swearing and eating pork later. (I'm not gonna quit eating pork). We have this view that we need to experience the pleasures of the world before we can take our faith seriously. My response to that is, seriously?
The problem with a day of sin before 40 days of good behavior is sin is like potato chips. Seldom is it just one. Not one day, not one sin, not one problem. Sin breed more sin, and when we give into a little sin, we find ourselves giving into a little more sin. Eventually we have given into a lot of sin and we are in way over our heads. Dead brings death, and inviting sin in, even for one day, is liking giving the grim reaper a key to the house. Simply not a good idea. My advice to Fat Tuesday? Just eat bacon cheeseburgers with good friends. . . and cheesecake.
Great advice, Dan!
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