Why is Lent so important?

I cannot believe today is the beginning of Lent. Lent is a Christian holiday I have overlooked for years. But, let’s look at why Lent is so important. Because it is, especially when we apply it to our lives.

Just like Advent is a preparation for the birth of Jesus, Lent is the same for His death. Reflecting on the season, prepares us to receive all the mysteries of our faith. Life and death, held together, reveal the beauty of resurrection. By skipping ahead, we miss the miracle of all three.

Life.Death.Resurrection

Lent is our time to reflect and prepare. It could be our time to give up, cut back, or increase and add. It is our choice. But by acknowledging this time, we discover why Lent is so important to us and our faith.

As we journey with Jesus, we discover new things about His life and most importantly about His relationship with God and others.

Today, I invite you to come along side Jesus, not as a reader but as a friend. Don’t skirt around the painful parts. Be there for Jesus just as you would for someone you love. Life is about relationship. Get to know Jesus. In doing so, you will experience the person of Christ. As we walk with Him, pressing into the discomfort, we might just realize what He did for us. In His life and through His death.

If you want to experience Easter in a whole new way this year, on a deeper level, with greater understanding of the One we follow, then come with me. From now until April 9th, let’s get to know Jesus. As we move a little slower, let’s bring new life to this old story.

My word is “preparation.” 

As I reflect on the word “preparation,” I hear a verse ringing in my ears, “Prepare ye the way.” It acts as a road sign, pointing me toward God. As we prepare for what we think is the greatest gift ever given, we begin to embrace life, death and resurrection. Together, the three work in mysterious ways.

During this season of Lent, we see Jesus preparing himself, the disciples and the rest of the world, for what comes next. We observe His life and He prepares us for His death. But without the final miracle, the cycle is incomplete. We must hold the three together, but hold them loosely.

God’s work is slow and mysterious. Often, we do not understand it. Even in Jesus’ final days, He continued to prepare those closest to Him, although, they did not get it. God was preparing them, just as God is preparing us.

Matthew 3:1-3 NIV says;

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ as he preached a message of repentance. But Isaiah had already spoken the same words 700 years earlier. As we reflect and prepare, we must begin to trust the slow work of God.

Reflect on this. 

In Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s prayer entitled, Trust in the Slow Work of God, he writes;

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you.
your ideas mature gradually – let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”

God is preparing you.

Can we trust the slow work of God, knowing we are not yet what we will be? Let’s look to Jesus as our model. As we reflect on his life, death and resurrection, we realize God is still preparing us. Because, God has so much to reveal through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray; Good and Gracious God, forgive us when we are impatient. Help us to trust You in all things, knowing one day your glory will be revealed in us and through us. Praise be to You, oh Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

P.S. – Leave me a comment, forward to a friend and/or post this on Facebook. -M

Wanna go deeper?  Start following Jesus. Read Matthew 4:1-11; Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 16-18. See you here next week, as we journey on together. -M