Before we came to worship in a Liturgical church setting, we never practiced Lent, nor even considered it. We hardly knew what it was about. We had an idea and we weren’t ignorant of the origins, but it just wasn’t something we thought about.
Now we have a concept, showing long before the Easter celebration, that confirms to me it’s validity and necessity for my life and walk with Jesus. Lent prepares us to receive the gift given on Calvary. The devil does not want us mortals to think about our immortality and eternal souls. He wants us to think bunnies and eggs, new finery and a big dinner after the church service. It is his purpose to have us ‘idolize’ the celebration. If our hearts are not ‘tuned in’ to what God is saying in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter is just another holiday.
Lent helps us tune in, ‘listen’, to what the Father is saying to us about His great gift of ‘reconciliation’, ‘redemption’, ‘restoration’ and of our ‘relationship’ with Him. We were created for His pleasure to be His friends; some ‘One’ we could walk and talk with not only in the Garden, but in every aspect of our lives.
Lent brings with it’s concept all kinds of ‘hell’. We have found that the stress level and ‘stuff’ that happens leading to Lent and Easter itself, really piles on. When we become aware and actually hear the Lord about the matter, we can walk through it in peace. (Well sorta!) Some days the tests become noticeably more difficult. That’s when I have to STOP and do nothing more until my relationship with Jesus is ‘tuned in’. I’m not saying, I don’t have to deal with the ‘stuff’ of life, but I don’t have to go through it without Jesus by and on my side.
Melanie Hoover 