Beginning the Journey of Lent

Tomorrow, February 17th is known as “Ash Wednesday,” and it is the beginning of the annual season of Lent, a time of prayer and preparation for Easter.

Lent is the period of 40 days (excluding Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter, and was originally a period of study and preparation for those to be baptized at Easter. It later became a time of penitence and self-examination for all Christians. In some ways, it is meant to reflect the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert fasting and resisting temptation prior to His ministry.

By celebrating Lent, we follow Jesus into the wilderness, resist temptation, pray, and proceed “on the way” to Jerusalem and the cross of Good Friday.
Our Lenten journey is one of repentance, that is, changing directions from self — self-serving patterns and a myopic focus — toward the outward focused way of Jesus’ followers.

We follow Jesus in laying down ourselves for others.  The power of God’s Spirit in our lives makes life-long changes become possible.  It’s the same power that raised Jesus from the dead that leads us toward repentance and renewal. Turning from the old self at Lent and experiencing a dying of old ways prepares us to truly experience the joy of Easter.

Here at our blog, we will be providing a guide for this season of prayer and reflection.  It is intended to assist you along the way. It is not meant to be followed legalistically. But, since we often need help in focusing on what is truly important and in laying aside distractions, this new blog series is designed to provide that help

There will be a devotional reading every other day during the next 40 days.  Come by as much or as little as you like. Remember that we are in the season of Lent and our praying has repentance as its focus.  Repentance is a two-fold spiritual discipline.

• First, it is an acknowledgment of our sin as it shows itself in the different aspects of our being — wrong thinking and attitudes, wrong affections and aspirations, wrong behaviors and actions.
• Second, it is a turning from our sin to Christ to realized the forgiveness and strength we have in him.  We turn to God’s Spirit to change and grow to be more like Jesus.  It is a sober reflection upon our condition, which leads us to faith and fresh trust in the finished work of Christ.

This church-wide reflection on our sin, our brokenness, and all the ways we are bound with the brokenness in the world should serve to increase our gratitude and wonder at the love of God.

May this season work in you, and in our community as a whole!