March 7, 2012 Lenten Thoughts

John 7: 37-38  One the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of the heart will flow living waters.

I have been thinking a lot about Lent lately, what it means, and especially what it means to give up something for Lent, why someone should do that, make a sacrifice of some kind for Lent.  As I thought about all these things, I came to a couple of conclusions:

·         Like anything we do, it has value as it glorifies God

·         That brings to mind the importance of our motivation or reason for what we do

·          And finally, that brings us to the attitude behind what we do and its importance

In reference to Lent, I think the tradition of giving up something for Lent is a good one, if you remember that the purpose for this sacrifice is not to show God how good we are, but to make space to think about Him, to notice Him, to worship Him. The bottom line is that “sacrifice” is really a gift God wants to give to us.

This year I chose to give up something that I enjoy doing, a hobby sort of thing that I spent time attending most every day. I have found that which I gave up had an inordinate place in my life, occupying more time thinking about it and attending to it than it should have. The flip side of that is the freedom I feel now. Every time it comes to mind, I feel a sense of release, of discovering “found time” that I can now give to God, to draw near to Him.  This space I have discovered is amazing, like a walk along a beach or a creek I can wade in on a hot summer day or a respite on a bench alongside a quiet lake .

God is so beautiful, so loving, so forgiving, so accepting, receiving me and loving me unconditionally despite all the junk painted over me. This space God has show me is hallowed ground, and now I am all about finding more of this ground.

So I want to talk more about this tomorrow, but for today, check out this site:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/20/lent-2012_n_1263583.html  Scroll down until you come to an article entitled A Lenten Examination of Ourselves – Another Look at Confession. 

Thanks to my daughter Amy who directed me in this site.  This is an easy – short sentences in simple language – to read article, but also a hard-to-read article in that I didn’t make it very far before being seriously convicted.  Now I know I need to tuck this article into my pocket to think about during some of that “found time.”