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Just because we humans are petty doesn't mean that God is. Lent, for instance, brings out an about face for some people.

Does it really make sense that if we choose six weeks out of the year to do good deeds and follow a certain diet, God will look down and say, "Oh, that person really means well. He passed up grilled hamburgers at work today to eat a fake fish sandwich at McDonalds."

The other 46 weeks of the year, we can live like we belong to the devil and God is just going to overlook it because we took time to attend Ash Wednesday service and take advantage of the fast food industry's annual fish frenzy?

The idea of lent is terrific. Forty days, like Jesus did in the desert, to commemorate what Jesus did for us at Easter. But do we not completely bypass the point, by following a set of expectations for this season merely for the purpose of being religious?

My goodness, Jesus Christ let himself be treated like a traitor and be crucified like a horrific criminal, so we wouldn't have to be petty, marking off the measly few good deeds for the year off our lists, trying to be good. Of course, we can't be good on by ourselves. We are wretched to the core, just take a look at any two or three year old. We do what benefits us. God doesn't grade our behavior on a curve. Nobody makes the cut on how many fish sandwiches we consume during lent or old ladies we hold the door for or dollars dolled out to UNICEF.

Jesus fulfilled the law, strung out on a splintery cross, struggling with each breathe, so we could live excitedly all year long, our whole lives long.