No Impact Man and Lent

Sandra and I just finished watching "No Impact Man". It is about 11:00 PM and my youngest daughter is still awake. She watched it with us too. She has no opinion about the movie. She just wants to stay awake until she passes out. On the other hand, Sandra and I would like nothing more than to go to sleep. But, I'm writing in my Blog instead.

I liked "No Impact Man" because I am interested in recycling and caring for this great gift we call Earth. One thing I liked most about the movie was that I did not have to try the experiment for myself. I have a hard enough time getting the plastic to the M.E.T. I can only imagine what it would be like to do what he and his wife and daughter did that year. Kudos to his family.

One of the things I did not like about it was incredible selfishness of the husband, and the lack of a religious perspective. After the movie both Sandra and I started talking about how we would make this sort of movie. One of the ideas we agreed on was that we both would like to put a focus on living naturally to glorify God. I know that sounds religiously whacko... but if you ever watch the movie "No Impact Man" you will probably consider him a sociopath whacko too.

As we talked about giving up "things" we started to talk about the upcoming Lent season. Sure, most people are excited about Mardi Gras, as usual. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for Mardi Gras and king cake and beads. But, this year we are really excited about Lent. Is that wrong?

So, Sandra and I came up with a list of things we will forgo during this Lent. For those of you out there, like I was for almost 35 years of my life, who do not know what Lent is, here are the brass tacks. Lent is a time period of 40 days before Easter. Christians who celebrate Lent generally fast or give up something important to them for the 40 day period. During Lent, Christians imitate Jesus Christ's 40 days in the wilderness.

My family and I do not intend to fast, so we are planning to give up something such as T.V., or fast food, or candy, etc... To tell you the truth, we are kind of new to observing Lent. Maybe I am breaking some sort of Christian code by even talking about this all. Oh well.

In any case, I enjoyed the movie "No Impact Man", and we are looking forward to Lent. I am not sure what I will give up, but it certainly will not be nearly as uncomfortable as spending 40 days in the wilderness. It's funny. The "No Impact Man" man gave up Earthly comforts for a year in order to improve the Earth. Jesus left behind Heaven for 33 years to save mankind. I guess Jesus was the complete opposite of "No Impact Man". You could say Jesus was "Impact Man" because his sacrifice is ever lasting.