The historic liturgical calendar is a tool that the church uses to stay rooted in the rhythms of the whole Gospel: God’s acts of creation, humanity’s fall, God’s covenants with Israel, the coming of Christ to redeem the world, the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth. Each calendar season presents the church with a fresh opportunity to explore God’s truth while pressing deeper into God’s life and work.
The season of Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday and concludes the day before Easter. Lent is a season of preparation and anticipation of the Resurrection. The forty days represent the time that Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry (Matthew 4:1-11).
Lent is a time to give up something so we can anticipate something greater. We observe Lent to help us identify with Jesus in his sufferings, and to prepare us for the great celebration of Easter. By fasting from certain things, we practice dying to ourselves. And by refocusing our lives, living to God, we intentionally choose things that help us become the kind of people God desires us to be.
Lent is a time to give something up, or to take something on. Here are some suggestions on how you might get started:
1. BEGIN ASKING YOURSELF A FEW QUESTIONS EVERYDAY.
Lent is a season to look at how you’ve been living and to commit to being a healthier, more loving person. Maybe these questions are a good place to start:
- What unhealthy patterns do I see in my life during the past year?
- What relationships need reconciliation or my new or renewed investment?
- How can I improve my relationship with God?
- In what ways can I join God in healing and restoring the world?
If it is helpful, try processing these questions by journaling or having conversations with someone close to you.
2. COMMIT TO READING THE BIBLE EVERYDAY.
A daily reading schedule is common during Lent, and this year I recommend Lent for Everyone, a devotional by N.T. Wright available for FREE at youversion.com. For each day of Lent, there is a reading chosen from the Gospel of Matthew, plus a reflection by Wright. This schedule can help you develop the habit of stopping everyday to read the Scriptures.
3. CONSIDER SOME KIND OF FAST
It’s been helpful for many throughout history to remove a practice or food from their life during Lent. This has been one way of identifying with Jesus on a deeper level and hopefully helping a person focus on God more intently.
The fast doesn’t necessarily need to be from food, though that can be helpful for many. Instead, you might want to identify something that takes a lot of time or money and fast from that. Maybe it’s television, the computer or video games. Maybe it’s purchasing books, music or clothes. Or maybe it’s eating out or ordering in. Whatever would be most helpful for you, a main reason for fasting is to help raise our awareness of God.
Whenever you feel an impulse for the thing you’re fasting from, take some time to acknowledge God and ask for His strength and grace.
4. REFLECT UPON & ENGAGE IN GOD’S MISSION
This kind of fasting can be a good, virtuous endeavor, but it can also become just another way to puff oneself up, to proudly show the world just how capably you have given up certain pleasures in pursuit of Christ. “Look what I’m giving up for Lent!”
So while self-denial is crucial to our Christian identity, it isn’t so much about our own valiant efforts to avoid things or “go without” as much as it is a call to passionately place ourselves in Christ, finding our identity in him and letting him work through us for the sake of our neighbor and for the world.
As you are considering some type of fast maybe you can also put some money aside to help the poor, or go for a walk in your neighborhood and pray for everyone you see, or send a handwritten letter to a relative who could use some encouragement.
Lent is a season to reflect on the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, who came not for his own sake, but for ours. Lent is not about us. It’s about living our lives for another–for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, and gaining true life in the process.
Thank you so much for this post! I have some what struggled with Lent: such as what and why you give up and what you take on...
Posted by: Katrina | March 03, 2011 at 03:09 PM