Giving Up. - Lent 2013

This week the Church will celebrate the holy day called "Ash Wednesday."  Ash Wednesday is the day that leads us as a Church into the season of Lent, a forty day preparation for Easter.  Ash Wednesday is a day to remember our humanity, "From ash we came to ash we will return."  It is also a day to confess.  It is a day to remember that we are human, and not God.  It is a day to focus ourselves, to remember that we are dust.

That really puts me in my place.

I need reminders that I am human.  I need reminders that God is in control.  I need reminders that it isn't me, but the God who lives in me.

I am relatively new to the practice of Lent.  I've only begun participating in the past few years, but I have to say it is something I look forward to every year.  I did not grow up in a Liturgical background, nor did I really ever find myself around those who practiced Lent.  In my small town there were very few who were from a Liturgical background, so I really didn't know much about Lent other than people would give up sugar, or meat.  I didn't understand the depth of what Lent really did in preparation for the Easter season.

(Worship House Media)

The past several years I have grown in friendship with people who have taught me the importance of "giving up."  I have found focus and clarity by joining in with the sacred rhythms of the Church.  Every year at this time, I get a forty day period to focus my life back to the One who gave me life in the first place.  I put aside earthly things that have controlled me like coffee, TV, email, sugar, meat, social media, and others and come back to center.  And the best part of it is that I get to do that with millions of others around the world.  During this season, we are all "giving up."  However, while forfeiting those earthly things, I am also being filled with spiritual things.  With no coffee, I get a good reminder everyday about at 2:30 p.m. that God is the provider of my energy.  With no TV, I have opportunities to engage more in Scripture and prayer.  With giving up meaningless time on social media, I am able to be fully present and engaged with others.

And in all of the giving up, I get filled by the Spirit and on Easter Sunday I can rejoice wholeheartedly because my heart is better prepared.

I'm sure many of you are spending these next couple of days in preparation for Lent.  I hope that this year you will "give up" trying to fill your life with meaningless things, and that you will remember the need to be filled by God.

I so look forward to sharing that with you as we journey together these 40 days of the Lenten Season.  May God bless us as we empty ourselves and may He fill us up with His Spirit as we prepare to rejoice in His glorious resurrection.