Some Thoughts About Lent....

I gotta be honest with you and tell you that until about a month ago, I really had no idea what lent even was. I knew it was a time when people gave up things, but that was the extent of it.

I grew up in a church where the Easter season began on Palm Sunday and included Maundy Thursday foot washing and an Easter Sunday sunrise service and breakfast. It took far longer for us to pick out what we were going to wear on Easter then it did to prepare our hearts for it.

This year is different. This year I am totally embracing lent for what it is. A time to confess my sins, to make changes in my life to ensure that those bad habits and behaviors are less likely to reappear and a time to prepare for what is about to come.

I do remember when I was younger and kids in school would give up bubble gum or Coke for lent. For them, I am sure that was a sacrifice. I know lots of people who are fasting from those things in order to spend more time with God or to donate the money that they would have spent on those things to a charity. God knows their hearts and they know what God has called them to give up.

But I know me.

If I am anything, I am predictable and I know how that would play out. I would give up Diet Pepsi for lent and spend the next 40 days lamenting about my withdraw. I would complain about it on Facebook and gain some encouragement from those that would spur me on, reminding me that I was fasting from caffeine for the Lord and that he would bless me for my sacrifice.

The sacrifice of going without Diet Pepsi each day when nearly half of the people in the world don't even have clean water to drink.

Easter Sunday would come and I would spend the next few days in a caffeine induced inebriation as I binged to make up for the last 40 days.

In the end, I would not come out of lent any different than I went into it. Still the same person that resists God at every turn and is constantly looking for a way to follow God on my own terms. Looking for the easy way.

To fast from, what to most people is a luxury, just doesn't seem to be what God is leading me to do.


Trust me, I have picked enough fights with God to know better. He always wins. Always.

And so this year, I have chosen to fast on the things in my life that continue to distract me from God. Instead, I will feast on the ways that God is constantly pulling me towards him. Looking for me, searching for me, longing for me to back to him.

I will fast from becoming so absorbed in this life of mine, from being the center of my own world. Instead of texting or talking on the phone while I am in public, I will stop and have a genuine conversation with the person behind the checkout counter. I will feast on human interaction. I will feast on the power of eye contact. Of a smile. I will feast on connecting with people, not because I think I have something to give to them, but because that is how God created us. I will feast on hearing other people's stories.

I will fast from being so busy or selfish that when someone shares a need with me, I tell them I will pray for them. Instead, I will feast on spending time with them and with God in that moment. Not praying for them. Praying with them.

I will fast from the words that cut people. Words that, even when whispered and in private, shred away at who a person is. Instead, I will feast on speaking loud. Letting everything that comes from my mouth be an encouragement and not a slap in the face. I will chose my words carefully at times and at other times, I will not censor what God is telling me to say simply because I don't want to overstep my boundaries or get something started.

I will fast from using God. From going to him after my own best efforts have failed. For treating him as that person that only gets an occasional update from me, not because I want them to know about my life, but because I feel obligated to. Instead, I will feast on spending time with God. Instead of reaching for my iPhone in the morning to see what I missed during the night, I will feast on going first to my Heavenly Father, to thank him for the safety of another night and the blessing of another day.

I am looking forward to this time of intentional disruption in order to make changes that are long past due.

What about you? What are you getting rid of in your life during lent in order to make room for the life God has planned for you?