Growing up in rural churches, we never celebrated Lent. I’m not sure I even knew what it was before going off to college. Occasionally a pastor held a special service on Good Friday — the day Christ died. But that was it before donning our Easter finest to celebrate his resurrection on Easter morning.

It always seemed to fly by too fast. So when a friend recently challenged me to pray for a specific need over the 40 days of Lent, I dug deeper to find out the history of this tradition.

Lent, it turns out, is one of the oldest observations of the church. A time of self-examination and penitence, it is demonstrated by self-denial in preparation for Easter. The practice goes back as far as the early church father Irenaeus of Lyons, who wrote about such a practice in the 2nd century — less than 200 years after Christ’s resurrection.

After the Council of Nicea, in the early 4th century, it went from a three-day observance to a 40 day season of fasting. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent when people gather in church to be marked with ashes as a sign of penance, came more than 200 years later. Over time, people went from fasting all day to giving up one meal to forgoing animal products. Most recently, it frequently entails abstaining from chocolate or sweets.

Curious, I asked my husband and several friends whether they celebrated Lent. “No,” they said. The reason seemed to be that it often took something so consequential

— the death and resurrection of Christ — and turned it into something ritual, which in turn has become quite trivial. One popular Facebook post suggested using the 40 days of Lent to clean out your house by getting rid of 40 bags of clutter.

Hmmm. I’m all for decluttering. But what if instead of decluttering our homes, we de-cluttered our hearts?

In Scripture, 40 is a significant number. During Noah’s flood, it rained for 40 days and nights. Before beginning his public ministry, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. One source noted that the number 40 in the Bible is often associated with a time of judgement and testing.

I am inspired by the early Christians who took time during Lent to forgo their natural desires to focus on God’s desires. I too want to use this time to reflect on God’s purpose and devote myself to deeper prayer. Not because I believe it will make me pious, but because I want to draw closer to Christ.

“What do you want to give up for Lent?” I asked my family this week at dinner.

“School!” my 7-year-old blurted.

While that won’t be happening, I plan to use this time of self-sacrifice and reflection to focus on Christ’s sacrifice and our redemption — the true meaning of Easter. How about you?

Meadow Rue Merrill writes for children and adults from a little house in the big woods of mid-coast Maine. Her memoir, Redeeming

Ruth: Everything Life Takes, Love Restores, is available for pre-order.

Connect at www.meadowrue.com