Lent Begins Wednesday. Get Ready.
“Lent is a time for discipline, for confession, for honesty, not because God is mean or fault- finding or finger-pointing but because he wants us to know the joy of being cleaned out, ready for all the good things he now has in store.” ~ N.T. Wright
The not-so-favorite time of the year for many people is just around the corner. Lent begins this coming Wednesday. The reason, I believe, that Lent is so often looked down upon is because people view it from a negative lens.
Negative? Well, yes. After all, don’t you have to give up your favorite things during Lent? That’s negative, isn’t it?
It could be. But negatives can be positives if viewed properly. We don’t give things up to be miserable people and long for those things that much more. No, we give things up because we want our sacrifices to be meaningful to the Lord.
The Lord doesn’t want us to be burdened, He doesn’t want us to view Lent through a negative lens. He wants us to use the discipline of Lent in order to draw closer to Him.
Oops, I did it again, didn’t I. First, I said negative. Now I’ve ramped up the negativity by using the word discipline. For many of us, discipline means unpleasantness. It means hurt. It means doing things that we don’t want to do.
But discipline — when speaking about Lent — is not a negative. Discipline is very positive. After all, if a person wants to excel in sports, that person has to take on the discipline of practice and fitness. Without embracing that discipline, there is no opportunity for sports greatness.
We are called to holiness. If we wish to become more holy, we need to embrace the discipline of the Lord. We need to turn away from the things that we know keep us from Him. We need to renew ourselves daily in prayer, another discipline that many do not practice. We need to reach out to others by performing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
In short, we have been handed a road map to the Kingdom. Jesus let us know what we needed to do in order to arrive at that glorious destination. It is up to us to take that map and follow where it leads.
On this Sunday before Ash Wednesday, I encourage you to examine your lives (just as we often do toward the end of the year before making New Years resolutions) and see what needs to change within you so that you may be prepared to embrace the discipline of Lent with renewed focus and hope.
FAITH ACTION: Do not be afraid to look deep within in order to determine what can remain, what needs to change, and what might need to be removed in order to become more holy this Lent.