Lent: Ready, Set, Die!
In my previous two posts (here and here), I have been talking about what it will mean to participate meaningfully in Lent. Today is the first day (Ash Wednesday), and I know some of you are still trying to figure out what to do. My advice is this: start simple.
Pick out one thing you can sacrifice as a way of entering into the wilderness with Jesus. Don’t worry about whether or not your sacrifice is a good one. It’s not a contest. Just make your aim to know Christ more fully, and trust him to lead you. Seek to replace that thing with devotion to Christ – his Word and his mission. God may lead you to give up and take up more as you go. That’s good. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus.
To help you focus your attention on God, I will be posting readings everyday with occasional prayers and meditations. Below is the first prayer and reading. But first, let me highlight a few thoughts as we enter into this season:
The Lenten season is a time of preparation and repentance in which we make our hearts ready for remembering Jesus’ passion and celebrating Jesus’ resurrection.
During Lent, we deny usual comforts as a means to deepen our sense of union with Jesus, and to re-orient our life around the things of God. We give up that which distracts and entangles us so we may consider our strategy for living, and we take up practices that will help us love Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Whatever you give up, it should be significant, something that you are in serious danger of being enslaved by. Begin with whatever habits or things that lie at the heart of your consumer lifestyle. Forsake them for the sake of being consumed by the God-life.
Whatever your sacrifice or discipline this season, let it be one of faith and not mere ritual or a source of pride. Lent is not about what we do for Christ. It is about a plumbing the depth of what he has done for us.
Pick out one thing you can sacrifice as a way of entering into the wilderness with Jesus. Don’t worry about whether or not your sacrifice is a good one. It’s not a contest. Just make your aim to know Christ more fully, and trust him to lead you. Seek to replace that thing with devotion to Christ – his Word and his mission. God may lead you to give up and take up more as you go. That’s good. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus.
To help you focus your attention on God, I will be posting readings everyday with occasional prayers and meditations. Below is the first prayer and reading. But first, let me highlight a few thoughts as we enter into this season:
The Lenten season is a time of preparation and repentance in which we make our hearts ready for remembering Jesus’ passion and celebrating Jesus’ resurrection.
During Lent, we deny usual comforts as a means to deepen our sense of union with Jesus, and to re-orient our life around the things of God. We give up that which distracts and entangles us so we may consider our strategy for living, and we take up practices that will help us love Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Whatever you give up, it should be significant, something that you are in serious danger of being enslaved by. Begin with whatever habits or things that lie at the heart of your consumer lifestyle. Forsake them for the sake of being consumed by the God-life.
Whatever your sacrifice or discipline this season, let it be one of faith and not mere ritual or a source of pride. Lent is not about what we do for Christ. It is about a plumbing the depth of what he has done for us.
A LENTEN PRAYER
(from The Worship Sourcebook)
God of love, as in Jesus Christ you gave yourself to us, so may we give ourselves to you, living according to your holy will. Keep our feet firmly in the way where Christ leads us; make our mouths speak the truth that Christ teaches us; fill our bodies with the life that is Christ within us. In his holy name we pray. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 51, Joel 2:12-18
Reminder: The Coram Deo Ash Wednesday service is tonight at 8:00. E-mail me if you need directions (will@cdomaha.com).
posted by Will | 10:49 AM
3 Comments:
Random thought that I wondered if anyone else was having:
I have always despised the Fat Tuesday concept of preparing for a time of repentence and fasting by getting all your booze and goodies in at the 11th hour. However, I was amazed yesterday at how quickly I slipped into that mindset myself as I began contemplating Lent for the first time in my life. As soon as I decided that my pursuit of Jesus might benefit if I cut out caffeine and the dozen or so sodas/candies/etc. that I treat myself to everyday, I immediately began craving those things and indulging in that "one last" taste of everything. I think I managed to pound a cup of coffee, a diet coke, and two regular cokes at MC alone last night. It was my own personal Mardi Gras at the Curtis' and it was no less depraved than the one in New Orleans. Not cool.
I am praying that God will use the sacrifice and discipline of the Lenten season to strenthen my relationship with Christ and prevent me from perverting it into a means for my own glory and future pleasure.
Nick, that is a fantastic comment/observation/insight. I also found myself wanting to indulge before the purge.
Already you have surfaced something significant in your life, and really all of oru lives. Thanks for letting us in on it.
That service was good for my soul. Thanks for putting it together and for explaining lent in detail, now it's something more in my mind than just what Catholics do.
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