Welcome to Fat Tuesday!

I am sitting here participating in one of my most favored rituals — drinking a morning cup of Purity Coffee. A homemade latte in the mug gifted to me by my grandmother, this one with the beautiful thought inscribed on the side: “it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow”.

I have been a daily coffee drinker in college. College forced it on me in a way, as I fought yawning from late night studies. It became even more sentimental when I roofed for a summer with my dad. I typically had to be at the work site before my dad, his privilege of being the boss man. So, I would make coffee for both of us.

I enjoy the process of my current process. Grinding the beans. Cleaning out my stovetop London Sip espresso maker that makes 2 shots of espresso. Loading it up and smelling the coffee drift through the house.

It is my consistent love of this thing called coffee why it is easy to choose as something to give up during the season of Lent. And that is why today is a special day to drink coffee: it’s my last day until Easter morning.

What is Lent?

The Lenten season is the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. It has historically been a time of fasting and prayer as Christians look towards the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Early Christians were strict about their fasting, and during Lent would only eat one meal per day, entirely avoiding meat, eggs, and, dairy.

Presently, it is rare to see Christians upholding this original tradition. Rather, we have created our own. Many will choose to give up something specific like sweets or social media. I think these are worthy goals to pursue and honoring to God. After all, sugar is so heavily consumed that for many it is an addiction that is making us sick. To give up sugar is to take aim at honoring God with our body. Social media is a time-sucking distraction. To give up social media is to give focus and time to God.

The thing you give up should make you feel pain a little. That is why I am giving up coffee. When I wake up, I often turn to coffee before anything else. I’d like to change that so I am turning to prayer and Scripture before anything else. I don’t want to escape the morning blues through a cup of coffee but through the enjoyment of the presence of God.

What is Fat Tuesday?

Fat Tuesday, also known in some places as Mardi Gras, is the day before Ash Wednesday which starts the Lenten season of fasting.

It is the last hoorah of spoiling yourself before you are stripped of your pleasures.

Today is the day to eat the chocolate, the ice cream, the cookies and pies, because starting tomorrow it’s all over.

For me, it looks like savoring an extra cup of coffee because tomorrow I will be suffering without it.

Mardi Gras is a carnival. “Carnival” is a latin phrase that literally means “remove meat” in reference to the fasting from meat in the Lenten season. But there is a double meaning there. It is not just a time of fasting from food, but a season where we seek to put away our flesh nature, a biblical idea of sin nature. Our “flesh” is our identity that seeks to be contrary to God.

Mardi Gras reveals our sin nature. Many people do a host of debauched things on this day. What interests me is the costumes people choose to where. In part, I think people seek to hide themselves. But I wonder, in the costumes they chose, maybe they are revealing who they really are.

When we splurge on a day like today, in some way show our hearts, our desires. The Lenten season is a time where, through sacrifice, we might take on new hearts. Hearts that no longer desire the comforts of the world, but instead desire the comfort that only God can provide.

I encourage you to watch the following clip from Jonathan Pageau on carnival today.

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