Top 3 reasons to observe lent

Growing up Catholic and later becoming a non-denominational Christian, I've seen an interesting spread of attitudes and practices surrounding lent. For the most part, Catholics have the strictest view, with dietary customs such as not eating between meals and giving up meat on Fridays. Every Catholic church I've attended has had a positive view on giving something up for lent, and using the 40 days prior to repent and prepare one's heart for the amazing blessing that happens on Easter. The six Sundays during lent are days of celebration, and these days actually ARE NOT included in the 40 day count. The Byzantine tradition, including Orthodox Greek churches do consider Sundays part of lent, and therefore believers must continue their practices through the weekend.

During my life-church adventure, I attended two Lutheran churches, both of which still practiced lent. In non-denominational churches (with pretty strong baptist roots), we did not. Neither The Father's House NY, a church I attended for about one year, nor my current church, Pittsford Community Church, have any special practices for lent.

I looked online to see the baptist view towards lent and found this extremely slandersome post:
http://jwest.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/why-baptists-dont-observe-lent/

I'd like to reply with the top 3 reasons to observe lent.
1) Lenten observers enter into a continued tradition of people who fast and pray. Until the protestant reformation, nearly every Christian practiced a life of repentence and sacrifice for the 40 days preceding Easter. Moses spent 40 days with God on Mount Sinai, and Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days before He began His ministry. By fasting and praying more strongly before Easter, we get to join into this communion of believers in faith and in practice.
2) Lent gives us time to really focus on repentence. I do agree with Jim West that repentence needs to be practiced 24/7/365, but we are human, and lent gives us a time to sharpen our focus. If we really try to do something 24/7/365, we can't and we lose focus. With God's help we can focus a whole lot more, and learn discipline that transfers to the other 325 days.
3) God knew exactly the amount of time we needed to change our habits and customs. By omiting small things that deter us from the life God would want for us, these changes are often times long-lasting. It takes a conscious decision to start a habit again after a successful lenten season.

That being said, Jim West needs to tone down. We are all Christians and the ways we express our honor and reverence to God are all important as long as they serve their purpose.