Today marks the beginning of Lent. Now, I come from {as Chris likes to say} a tribe that does not participate in the holy calendar apart from Easter and, sometimes, Christmas. However, for the past several years, Chris and I have chosen to participate in Lent. The purpose of this season is to give something up, or do something extra, for the 40 days leading up to Easter to symbolize the 40 days that Jesus was in the desert before his formal ministry began. This "fast" of sorts was designed to help Christians prepare their minds and hearts, through prayer and fasting, for Good Friday and Easter.
In the past, I have given up things like meat, chocolate, and even my beloved Diet Dr. Pepper. While going without these things can be somewhat challenging and does make Easter more anticipated, it does so for the wrong reasons. I am ready for Easter to hurry up and get here so I can partake in whatever I have denied for the past 40 or so days, but I am not focused on Easter because I have spent more time in the past 40 days focusing on the life of Jesus. I had not dedicated more time in lieu of my meat, chocolate, or Diet Dr. Pepper to thinking about and contemplating his sacrifice.
So, for Lent this year, I knew that I wanted to give up something that involved the way in which I spend my time. For this new momma, time has taken on a whole new meaning. I rarely have "me" time {which I am TOTALLY okay with because I spend my time with my precious daughter...I love saying that!}. Today until Easter, I will not read blogs. I will still post on my blog because there are some grandparents and aunts that would be very unhappy with me if I didn't :), but I will not spend time reading others' blogs. Instead, I will use this time to really consider the life of Jesus. I will spend time contemplating the fact that Jesus left the perfection of Heaven to live in this imperfect, broken, hurting world {my world} so that he could truly understand me and my struggles, my pain, and my temptations. I will focus my time on the fact that not only did he live, fully live, as a human but suffered a horrible death. Then, he defeated death so that I will be able to one day experience the fullness and perfection of heaven {his world}. I want to understand how the example of his life on earth can make mine much more abundant and meaningful too. I want to spend the extra {at least} 30 minutes a day that used to be dedicated to reading blogs to engage in sweet, quiet times with the Lord. I am certain that if I stick with this that it will make Easter much more anticipated and meaningful this year, just as this season was intended to do.
I will have lots of catching up to do in 40 days, but I have a feeling it will be worth it! I hope you all are blessed in this season of Lent.
2 comments:
Stace,
I was very humbled and encouraged by your thoughts today. As always, thank you for sharing.
I love you
Good point Stacey. I have never fully felt like I understand the whole idea of Lent, prayer, fasting, etc...even though many people have tried to explain it to me. I felt just as you did. The way you put it...reminding us that its less about what your giving up and more about spending the time before Easter drawing closer to Jesus and actively, intentionally stylizing our behavior to make that happen. Thanks for sharing.
Love you, Sandy
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