Lent doesn’t have to be just another 4 letter word in our christian vocabulary. I wrote about it last year being a word that we use as a time to give up things that bring us pleasure. You can read more about that here…
I wanted to give out this invitation to join in this season. It is a powerful christian practice that allows us to draw nearer to the suffering of Christ, ultimately the pleasure and intimacy of God. Strangely its something that we can do anytime of year, but practically it is a time where the Christian Church looks at Jesus suffering, time in the wilderness leading to His execution and death on the cross, all proceeded by his glorious resurrection.
Why is lent for you? Because God’s love is for you, His grace, His provision, His wounder, His Kingdom is for you and for me. Lent is an invitation to experience not only the suffering of Christ but the joy and presence of of that love, grace, provision, wonder and kingdom God has for us.
There are a few ways you can except this invitation…
- Giving up a thing that brings you great pleasure – many give up things like food or technologies that bring them joy for a 46 day period leading into Easter. This removal of normal things causes one to find pleasure else where…in God
- Fasting – giving up foods and drink. This is a widely practiced aspect of lent. Fasting can be from removing certain food groups, certain kinds of drink from ones diet.
- Spiritual Disciplines – instead of listing them out you can Google spiritual discipline practices or check out this link here. These are practices that help us draw closer to God and Christ-likeness. There are some great practices here for sure. I will posting some each week if you want to keep coming back here.
There are so many other ways and so many disciplines one can enter into. My encouragement is that you would draw nearer to God these next 46 days leading into Easter. Make this a time for you and God, not for others and God. This is your invitation, not your students, not your churches, not your children or your spouse. This is your invitation.
I’d encourage you to subscribe to this blog if you would like to know more about spiritual practices and disciplines. Throughout this season I will be posting a lot about them and my journey in them as well. You can subscribe by clicking here
