The Christian (and Catholic) 40 days of Lent

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That puts me to tears @Karlon

My brother is highly intelligent, was in the top percentile in his class up until this class year. His senior year, he already had enough units to graduate, so this whole year he has been ditching school, joined a gang, got an area code tattooed on his neck of his gang, along with LA tattooed on his arm because I think he desires a challenge and maybe being in a gang offers that to him, I don’t know.

I pray for him constantly and hope that he makes the decision to follow Jesus eventually.
i'm sorry to hear this about your brother. so sad. hope never dies. let's always pray.
 
That puts me to tears @Karlon

My brother is highly intelligent, was in the top percentile in his class up until this class year. His senior year, he already had enough units to graduate, so this whole year he has been ditching school, joined a gang, got an area code tattooed on his neck of his gang, along with LA tattooed on his arm because I think he desires a challenge and maybe being in a gang offers that to him, I don’t know.

I pray for him constantly and hope that he makes the decision to follow Jesus eventually.
i'm reminded of people who were genius level who wasted their lives away. i know a guy who did more drugs than rock stars. this guy never studied, partied in school & scored 100's all the time. he destroyed his pancreas from drugs & died in his 40's. another guy, super smart, never studied, drank & drugged more than anyone, never had a prosperous career. in fact, he only worked about 10 fruitful years. he was lazy also. & there's even more.
 
i'm reminded of people who were genius level who wasted their lives away. i know a guy who did more drugs than rock stars. this guy never studied, partied in school & scored 100's all the time. he destroyed his pancreas from drugs & died in his 40's. another guy, super smart, never studied, drank & drugged more than anyone, never had a prosperous career. in fact, he only worked about 10 fruitful years. he was lazy also. & there's even more.
It’s very sad. My brother wasn’t challenged enough. It also doesn’t help that his dad was barely in the picture. I had to step in and be that role model, until the day my brother started telling me that I’m not his dad, so I stopped treating him like he was someone I needed to take care of…until of course he came home drunk one night.
I ended up having to monitor him while he was passed out in the restroom, cleaned up the vomit in his room, did his laundry and talked to him about what getting drunk can do to a person, if they do that every weekend or day….something I used to do when I was his age, until 26 when I surrendered my life to Jesus.
 
It’s very sad. My brother wasn’t challenged enough. It also doesn’t help that his dad was barely in the picture. I had to step in and be that role model, until the day my brother started telling me that I’m not his dad, so I stopped treating him like he was someone I needed to take care of…until of course he came home drunk one night.
I ended up having to monitor him while he was passed out in the restroom, cleaned up the vomit in his room, did his laundry and talked to him about what getting drunk can do to a person, if they do that every weekend or day….something I used to do when I was his age, until 26 when I surrendered my life to Jesus.
wow! millions of families exist without parents being around properly. hope all is well soon with everyone.
 
that's a catholic's famous last words: 'i don't want to talk about it". they say that because they don't know what they are talking about, they are uninformed on the Bible. very rarely did we go out & play with neighborhood kids because our parents wouldn't let us. we were always getting beat. for anyone who thinks they are Christian, they ought to learn James 1: 22-25. sorry to hear this about your family. i witnessed to my younger brother for 41 years, & he would not accept Jesus. in august of 2024, he hung himself by rope.
I just reread this again and I’m very sorry for your loss @Karlon
 
I looked it up on Google for the first time before posting this thread, so I literally don’t know much about it.

That's what I did!! I found so much lent info.

Lent as described in this thread is what you call Comfortable Christianity.

See this is an emulation of Jesus 40 days of testing in the desert, right?

So we took 40 days of fasting and testing into I'll stop chips & ice cream? Am I right? I don't know much about lent, but I think it should be more stringent than that.
 
That's what I did!! I found so much lent info.

Lent as described in this thread is what you call Comfortable Christianity.

See this is an emulation of Jesus 40 days of testing in the desert, right?

So we took 40 days of fasting and testing into I'll stop chips & ice cream? Am I right? I don't know much about lent, but I think it should be more stringent than that.
I think it would be great to participate in lent, as if we were all Jesus, not eating or drinking anything but for a lot of Christians out there, it might not be as realistic as I or you would like it to be.
 
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Oh wow. Do you know if he suffered from any unprocessed trauma growing up?
yes. us always getting beat, the big gap between ages & him having no spiritual or mental strength to admit, identify, recognize & correct problems. he was 10 years younger than my twin & i, & 11 & a half years younger than the oldest brother. although i never had kids i learned long ago that it is dangerous having kids so far apart in age. also, because he was big for his age, he bullied the local kids & developed a way to control & get his way. he was 6' 3". 1 day he challenged me by asking what i would do if he put me in a certain hold. i hit him in the ribs & he just about fell in pain, for 15 minutes.
 
yes. us always getting beat, the big gap between ages & him having no spiritual or mental strength to admit, identify, recognize & correct problems. he was 10 years younger than my twin & i, & 11 & a half years younger than the oldest brother. although i never had kids i learned long ago that it is dangerous having kids so far apart in age. also, because he was big for his age, he bullied the local kids & developed a way to control & get his way. he was 6' 3". 1 day he challenged me by asking what i would do if he put me in a certain hold. i hit him in the ribs & he just about fell in pain, for 15 minutes.
My brother did a similar thing to me and I launched at him with an array of punches, fortunately I didn’t land any punches because was underage at the time but he hasn’t really challenged me since. Yeah, he’ll throw immature insults at me but I’m usually in such a great mood lately that it doesn’t effect or bother me because I know who I am spiritually and I see how empty and full of darkness he is.

A few years back, he was not like the adult he is today. He was or seemed like an innocent teenager and before that, a child that I would do anything for.
 
I think it would be great to participate in lent, as if we were all Jesus, not eating or drinking anything but for a lot of Christians out there, it might not be as realistic as I or you would like it to be.

I've never fasted for 40 days!

My longest fast was 7 days, and it was easier than I thought it would be.

No I was reading through the thread people saying what they will fast from and most of those things I'm already fasting from (sic) because I cant afford them. The last time I bought a candy bar she asked for so much money that I double checked to see if she was holding a weapon because it was robbery,
 
Apparently it is possible to fast for 40 or 40 plus days but you won’t see me doing it.

“Angus Barbieri's fast is the world record for the longest fast, where the Scottish man went 382 days (June 1965 to June 1966) without solid food, surviving on water, tea, coffee, sparkling water, vitamins, and yeast extract under medical supervision. He lost a significant amount of weight, going from 456 pounds to 180 pounds, and the case was documented in a medical journal”

Google…lol ughh