Lent begins tomorrow (or what's more likely by the time I'm done writing this post, today).
Lent brings to mind a few different things depending on what you've heard or experienced of it. Whenever I mention Lent, the most common response I receive is, 'But you're not Catholic.' Oh well. :P
Traditionally, Lent is viewed as a 40 day period of time in which believers do some sort of penance in the form of fasting from particular foods or activities in preparation for Holy Week, which includes the death and resurrection of our Savior.
Others take a less 'religious' view and simply see Lent as a great time to try giving up smoking or drinking soda or eating chocolate.
But what is the point of Lent? Can one really do penance for their sins, hoping to find favor in God's eyes? Of course not!
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" ~Eph. 2:8
I think there is a fine, but significant, line between doing penance for sin and recognizing your desperate need for Christ's blood to cover your life. I think practices which can start out as the latter can drift into the category of doing penance if we're not careful.
While spending time thinking and praying about how I wanted to handle Lent this year, I asked God to show me what most I needed from Him, not just during this time, but for my life in general. One thing I've always liked about Lent is that you have a tangible goal to set for yourself. 40 days to work towards a new goal.
During this time of reflection, I recalled something we had talked about in our college small group last fall. We were talking about tithing and it was brought up what it might look like if we tithed a portion of each day to the Lord. I said then that I would do that for Lent. And so...that's what I'm going to do for Lent.
10% of every day will be for the Lord. I'm not talking about sitting and reading my Bible, but really spending time with the Lord. Praying, yes, but most importantly, listening. Truly spending quality time with my Jesus. My biggest prayer for this time is that I won't stop at 40 days...and that by the time that 40 days is up, I'll be giving more than 10%.
I want to spend the next 40 days truly connecting with Him and learning to listen to His voice. This is what I feel He wants most from me right now. All areas of spiritual growth in my life hinge on whether I am listening to His direction.
In order to maximize my ability to listen to God's voice (and know that it is only Him that I'm allowing to dictate the direction of my life), I've decide to make the following verse my theme verse for Lent:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." ~Phil. 4:8
The battle for the mind is as spiritual as any. Spending this Lenten season recognizing how Christ's sacrifice not only has redeemed my life and saved me for eternity, but also knowing that it's this very power that helps me to fight everyday temptation is a huge reason why this verse is key to successfully growing with Christ. It's going to come off a bit extreme, but I'm okay with that.
I want more Jesus and if that means less of everything else, so be it. I want to truly discover what it means to dwell solely on those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. There are a lot of things I can do that wouldn't stand out to anyone simply because the rest of the world is doing it too.
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." ~Romans 12:2
I want to cut out the unnecessary and be different! My life should look different to the world. In fact, I imagine that if I truly lived a life worthy of the calling that Christ has put on me, my life would look a lot different than most of the believers I know. I'm not saying that to rag on the people I know and love, goodness knows I'm right there with them. But I'm ready to step up and say enough is enough. Christ is in me which means that Christ should move through me. And Jesus didn't plan his life around a TV schedule or what tax bracket He fell into. He lived a life of love and truth and passion. He lived and died and rose to change the world.
Oh, that I could live a life like that! I want to affect those around me for eternity, and that journey begins with my own decision to allow Christ to completely take over and transform me.
Even so, come Lord Jesus!
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