An Invitation for Lent

Tomorrow (Feb. 14) begins the period of Lent.  This period is designed to prepare the Church (all believers) for the celebration of Easter.  Lent lasts 40 days and is intended to commemorate Jesus’ 40 day fast in the desert at the beginning of his ministry when he was tempted by Satan.  This is why we tend to associate fasting with the observation of Lent.

If you’ve never observed Lent before, that’s alright!  I haven’t either.  But the more I thought about observing it this year, the more I wanted to participate.  I want to participate because of the reasons mentioned above about what it represents as well as where it places our focus.  But I also wanted to observe Lent this year because I think it is a good reminder for us.  We may be Grace Raleigh and exist in 2018, but we come from a long line of churches and congregations, and traditions, and faith practices.  We stand on the shoulders of millions who have come before us.  We inherit our church and the way we worship and the things that we hold so dear about it from the generations who have preceded us all the way back to the birth of the church in the New Testament.  When we observe Lent we are not only acknowledging Jesus and preparing to celebrate his sacrifice, but we are also acknowledging our rich and deep heritage as a body of believers.

I stated earlier that Lent represents a time of fasting.  For us, fasting usually involves giving something up, but I am going to think of it a bit differently this year and would like to invite you to join me in this observation.

Instead of giving something up, I’d like to invite you to set two things aside:

1. Money

How about for the next 6 weeks leading up to Easter, we commit to not spend money on something that we would normally spend money on and set that aside to do some good?  We could cancel our Netflix subscription, commit to going out one meal less, lay off the Starbucks, or any number of things.  Then set aside that money we would spend each week and at the end of Lent, to celebrate Easter, give that extra money to something we believe in.  Use it to be generous in whatever way you like.  In being generous we celebrate the ultimate act of generosity that Easter represents.

2. Time  

In the same way, give up something that costs you time and use that extra margin in your schedule to focus on God or spiritual things.  For many this could be as simple as giving up sleep and getting up 30 minutes before we have to.  For others it could be turning the radio off in the car and spending time in prayer.  Maybe you turn the tv off half an hour early or stay at the office a half an hour longer.  There are plenty of ways to set aside time and if we are willing to do this, I bet God will prepare us to celebrate Easter in unique and special ways.

How about it?  Will you join me in observing Lent this year?  Let’s find out together what happens when we set some things aside to help us focus on the Father and the gift of his Son.

*For those wanting to celebrate Lent as a family, our Children’s Director (Erin Winston) has Lent guides available or families with both big and small kids.