For the Love of Chocolate

This year I gave up chocolate for lent. This is the first year that I have observed lent, and it was good. I will probably do it again. I found, however, that my protestant friends really didn't know what to say when I told them why I wasn't eating chocolate. Usually the conversation just kind of awkwardly died, but some of the more outspoken ones said what everyone else was thinking: "Why?"

Why indeed.

Before I decided to take such a drastic step I pondered that very question. Why would I, a very non-Catholic person, observe a Catholic tradition? There were two main reasons, and a sub-reason. First, I wanted this Easter season to be more meaningful than in the past. This was accomplished by depriving myself of something that I usually eat every day, so that when I had the option to eat it but didn't, I would think of the reason why. It worked. Jesus' death and resurrection were on my mind much more than in the past. The second reason was that I wanted to honor Jesus' sacrifice by sacrificing something that I loved. My sacrifice wasn't even an iota of a molecule compared to Jesus' sacrifice, but so is everything else we give to Jesus. The greatest things we will ever do for Him are pathetically insignificant compared to His glory. However, that shouldn't stop us from giving them. The sub-reason was to show that I loved Jesus more than chocolate. I know that sounds ridiculous. Of course I love Jesus more than chocolate! But over the past seven weeks I have been humbled and shamed by my too great of love of the one, and my too little of love for the other.

Forgive me as I wax satirical for a minute. I LOVE chocolate! When I decided to give it up for lent, I wasn't sure if would be alive at the end of it. You see, I have three main food groups: chocolate, sugar, and cheese. Almost everything I eat includes one of these three. If you take one away, that leaves only two food groups left, and I had a hard enough time finding stuff to eat with three! Someone said that at first it would be hard not to eat chocolate, but then I would get used to it. That person was LYING! I have wanted chocolate every day since I started. Ice cream! Cake! Cookies! Brownies! Mochas! Candy! We live in a society that is basically swimming in chocolate I discovered. And I wanted to eat all of it. I realized how much I really do love chocolate.

And then to my everlasting shame and remorse, I compared my love of chocolate to my love of Jesus. Yes, I gave up chocolate for Jesus, but how easy is it to give up my quiet times? Easier than giving up chocolate? Do I see Jesus everywhere like I see chocolate everywhere? Do I long for Jesus like I long for chocolate? It doesn't matter what my answers are to the above questions. They need to be better. I don't love Jesus like I should. He deserves my every thought and my every action. His gospel needs to be the center of my existence, or else I am guilty of idol worship. I thought I was giving up chocolate for lent because I loved Jesus, but through the process I realized just how much I don't.

I'm saddened as I write this post. I want to be better; I thought I was better. The good news is that Christ loves me the same whether I'm weak or strong, whether I fail or succeed. I'm not celebrating Easter this year because I'm a good person, but because I'm a hopelessly sinful person whose sins were paid for on the cross of Christ. I'm celebrating His resurrection because without it, there is no hope for you and me.

Two things to leave you with. First, do you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? There is nothing more important in your life than being right with God. You can deny His existence, you can say it doesn't matter, or you can believe in relative truth. At the end of the age, though, you will know the truth, but it will be too late. I can deny the existence of gravity, or I can say that what gravity means to you is not what it means to me, but if I step off of a building, I am going to fall every time. I beg you to believe the truth. Second, what idols do you have in your life that compete with Jesus? What would be the hardest thing for you to give up? Why? And don't just think of common things. What about body image? Security? Self-esteem? Anything we place above Christ needs to move down. Prayerfully ask Him what is an idol in your life and He will show you. You have to be willing to change it, though, or else it won't do any good just to know about it. Believe me: Any sacrifice you make in this life, no matter how great, won't even matter in the next. The only thing that will matter is how much we loved and lived for Jesus.

Go and be blessed this Easter weekend.