Lent is a season of forty days leading us to Easter. (Yes, there are more than forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, but traditionally Sundays are not counted.) It is meant to be a season of spiritual reflection and introspection. Some churches drape the cross in their sanctuaries with black. Often there is an emphasis on darkness. When we truly ponder our sin, our brokenness before God, and the bankrupt nature of our souls, we are led to see again, maybe in a new way, the darkness of our lives as well as our need for a Savior. The Good News of Easter, the celebration that Jesus has defeated sin and death and has risen to new life, is made more intense and more meaningful in comparison to the season of darkness known as Lent.
Our daily email devotionals during Lent will follow a theme each week and are meant to lead you into deeper reflection on your relationship with God, your need for Jesus, and your own desire for God’s Spirit to bring renewal in you. Here’s my best advice to you: Don’t be too eager to go too quickly to Easter. As hard and challenging and difficult as Lent may be, stay in it. Sit in it. Let Lent do its work in your soul as you reflect on your sin and the amazing, world-changing, life-giving grace that has been given to us in Jesus.
As Ephesians 4 instructs, let us “put off our old self,” the sinful, selfish, angry, hurtful, condemning, condescending, judgmental self that blocks us from walking closely and intimately with Jesus. And let us “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” This change is not going to happen overnight or even after a few days. But as we purposefully and intentionally choose to attend to our souls, to our spiritual selves, and to what God wants to do in and through us, we can begin to let the Holy Spirit make us new people in whom the image of God has been redeemed and restored.
Will you walk with me this Lent? Will you join me on this difficult but oh-so-needful journey? I am humbled and honored to journey with you.