It's been a while since I've posted, as this has been a very busy season. At work, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as my 7th graders are putting finishing touches on a major research project that stretches across the curriculum and our 3rd quarter draws near to closing! This is also beginning to be my favorite time of year, as the weather gets warmer with comfortable temps, Rodeo season, Spring Break, and feeling like we are ALMOST out for summer!
Despite my busy-ness, God has been working so hard for me, as He always does. In the last three to four weeks as I have given VERY LITTLE time to support-raising because of this extremely busy season at work, my support account has almost doubled! God is so good and I am so thankful and humbled by the giving of so many of you! When you give, you are showing Jesus to me! I am so thankful for you being a part of this journey with me, and words will never express my depth of appreciation!
This past week, as the season of Lent started, I can honestly say Ash Wednesday came without me realizing the import of it. You see, as a Southern Baptist, I didn't grow up in a church that observed these 40 days prior to Easter, and most of the friends around me didn't observe it either, so I can honestly say I knew/know little about it. I was exposed to the pomp and circumstance of Easter in Europe during college when studying abroad in Spain, but this was before God was REAL to me in my everyday life. Thus, these last years since I have made Him a priority, my curiosity has been raised and I decided to do a bit of research on this season that leads up to Easter. Also, I have more and more begun to wonder why Easter isn't a bigger deal on our holiday schedule. I mean, really, if it wasn't for the Crucifixion, Christmas wouldn't be a big deal– there would be no reason to celebrate His birth if He had not taken on the Ultimate sacrifice for ME and YOU. Why is it then that there is more pomp and circumstance (and what seems to me more import) around Christmas than Easter? In some parts of the world, I know it does have much pomp and circumstance, perhaps more than Christmas (I have never lived in Europe during Christmastime, but I have lived in Spain during Semana Santa, and there is indeed much tradition surrounding it). So why is it that Catholics seem to approach this season with much more outward thankfulness and celebration of His resurrection than we do in certain denominations of Protestantism? Now, I know that traditions, much of the time, are just that and nothing more, but I still wonder why this is the case and why more Protestant churches don't participate in the season of Lent. I ask, because as I researched I realize that I love what it is and prepares us for, if practiced as intended.
Norman Tanner had this to say about the season of Lent:
The length of time was adopted in imitation of the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert at the beginning of his public ministry:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights and afterwards he was famished. (Matthew 4:1-2)
In many languages the word for Lent implies ‘forty’: Quaresima deriving from quaranta (forty) in Italian; Cuaresma coming from cuarenta in Spanish; Carême deriving from ‘quarante’ in French. The English word ‘Lent’ has another, very beautiful derivation. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon (early English) word meaning to ‘lengthen’. Lent comes at a time when the hours or daytime are ‘lengthening’, as spring approaches, and so it is a time when we too can ‘lengthen’ spiritually, when we can stretch out and grow in the Spirit.
Just as the sun was thought to do the work of ‘lengthening’ the days during early Springtime, so it is the sun – in the sense of God’s warmth and light – that does this work in our ‘lengthening’ and growing in Christ. In the English language, indeed, we have a beautiful play on the words ‘sun’ and ‘son’. Just as the sun was seen to do the work of ‘lengthening’ the days in spring, so it is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who does the work of ‘lengthening’ in our spiritual growth. Our role during Lent is to cooperate with God’s grace and initiatives… relax in the presence of God.
Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days to get away, and spend time with, His Father. This is one of the major reasons I am going on the world race: so that I can have a time where I "get away" with Him. So I see this season of Lent as great preparation not only to remember the sacrifice my Father made for me on the Cross, but also as preparation for this journey I will soon embark upon. I think the idea of giving up something must be replaced with time spent in Him, and I, as a result, have thought about what I could give up that is a sacrifice and distracts me from Him, so I have decided to give up TV. I don't need it, and yet I find myself in front of it too often as I try to distract myself from the stuff that bogs me down after a long day at work. I know that it is time that I could, and should, be spending with Him, so I am going to give it up and spend that time, instead, reading my Bible, doing my Bible study, and being in prayer.
What about you… are you participating in Lent, and if so, what are you giving up?
