There are a couple of holidays this time of year. I am sure you had Valentine’s Day on your radar, but perhaps you did not yet have Ash Wednesday in your sights. So, I wanted to give you a reminder that the Christian season of Lent begins Wednesday, February 18.
Here’s some calendar trivia for you: In 2024, Ash Wednesday fell on Valentine’s Day. Ash Wednesday is what is known as a “moveable feast,” which means it’s observance moves around the calendar from year to year, since the Christian Church calendar is tied to the lunar calendar.
If you regularly observe Lent, you may already be thinking of how you’d like to encounter Christ during this season. Perhaps you are deciding on something to fast from, since “giving up something for Lent” is a very common practice for many. Or maybe the season of Lent is unfamiliar to you. Some denominations practice it, others do not. I didn’t hear of it until middle school.
Lent is a time of spiritual preparation for celebrating the resurrection at Easter. It is typically celebrated for 40 days (not counting Sundays) starting Ash Wednesday and ending in Holy Week. Generally speaking, Lent emphasizes repentance and renewal and includes spiritual preparations to more fully focus on the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection. Three specific, traditional practices during Lent are prayer, fasting, and giving.
One of the things I love about this time of the Christian calendar is that the season of Lent offers us an opportunity to stay in touch with the great truth that we are pilgrims in a fallen world, often in need of deep reorientation along the way. We do well to be reminded of our ongoing, daily need for Christ’s grace in our lives.
Lent is a time in which believers intentionally try to become more sensitive to the role of sin and brokenness in our lives, in order to to cultivate deeper gratitude for the grace of Christ. The season is an opportunity for both remembrance and repentance.
Sometimes we forget just how amazing a story we are a part of—the great, grand love story of God coming to our rescue. We live in a culture that doesn’t want us to think about our weaknesses or our needs or our sin. In our morally relativistic age, many reject the notion of sin entirely.
But we lose sight of the grandeur of God’s love if we deny our sin, if we deny our need for Him.
So as you think toward Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, I thought it would be appropriate to remember the beginning of the story. The poetic prologue of John’s gospel echoes the opening creation story in Genesis 1, declaring how things were “in the beginning.”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind...
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
John 1:1-4, 9-10 (NIV)
Look at Jesus in the beginning: present, creating, bringing light and life. And yet, as John notes in verses 9-10, though Jesus made the world, and is the light of the world, the world did not recognize Him.
Lent offers us an opportunity to be intentional about recognizing Jesus and our deep need for Him.
Some years I use a special devotional for the season, so I’ll share below a few resources that I have used and in recent years. Some years I also decide to observe a Lenten fast. As you consider this season, let the Father lead your path, asking Him how to journey toward deeper love for Him in Lent.
| | Contemplating the Cross by Tricia McCary Rhodes Subtitled a 40-Day Pilgrimage of Prayer, this is one of the first Lenten devotional books I ever used, and it is a powerful one. Rhodes centers all forty entries around the hours leading up to Christ’s death, beginning with his time in the Garden of Gethsemane. Each entry uses Scripture, meditations, and reflections to help you slowly enter into and contemplate the details of the Passion narrative. It is emotionally weighty in the best possible way. This is not a book you can quickly dip in and out of, but it is transformative if you give it the space it requires. |
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| | Lent in Plain Sight: A Devotion Through Ten Objects by Jill Duffield This book charmed me with both its simplicity and its depth. Duffield focuses on ten ordinary objects Jesus would have encountered on his journey to the cross, among them dust, bread, stones, shoes, towels, and thorns. (Aren’t you at least a little curious about meditating on shoes?) Each daily entry includes Scripture and a reflection, followed by questions and a prayer for the day. With an entry for every single day of Lent (including Sundays) this book takes you from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday with a reminder of God’s work through the ordinary things we often overlook. |
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| A Way Other Than Our Own by Walter Brueggemann Brueggemann is an Old Testament scholar who also writes poetry, and this book reflects both his intimate knowledge of Scripture and a heart engaged with metaphor. The book has forty-seven short reflections on a daily passage, followed by a prayer. As the cover copy explains these words call readers to recognize the ways “God has always called people out of their safe, walled cities into uncomfortable places, revealing paths they never would have chosen.” You can tell by the colored tabs in the photo that this book is one that resonated deeply with me. (I think I underlined something on almost every page.) The entries are short, but the truths are deep and the ideas will linger with you for ongoing reflection. |
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| | The Word in the Wilderness: A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter by Malcom Guite As a former teacher of literature, I was delighted to discover this work by Guite, a poet, priest, and singer-songwriter. “Poetry cannot be read quickly and, in asking to be savoured, it begins to change the way we think and see,” the back cover declares. This makes poetry a perfect companion to a Lenten journey of reorientation to Christ and the values of His Kingdom. Featuring works by classic and contemporary poets, entries focus on a poem a day followed by a reflection. Though not arranged around specific Scripture passages, these pages reflect deep connection to the Word and Christian practice. This is different way to journey through the season on a non-traditional path for those with a literary bent. |
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| This weekend, in preparation for the coming season of Lent... Pause to remember Who Jesus is, and has always been. Pause to consider the ways in which you have failed to recognize him, asking Him to give you eyes to see and ears to hear Him. Pray about whether he would have you participate in Lent in some specific way this year through either a dedicated devotional time or observing a fast from something to daily remind you of your need for Him. Spend some time browsing some of the resources I’ve shared above asking God to show you if one of them should form your Lenten practice this year.
May you find more of Him as we journey toward the joy of Resurrection Sunday! P.S. - While it isn’t specifically written for the season of Lent, I will also suggest my Bible study Return and Rest: A Study in Isaiah 30, for your Lenten journey. If your heart is crying for relief from heavy burdens, or you long for a deeper experience of Jesus, this study would be the perfect Lenten companion. With a total of 30 lessons, you could work through it over the six and a half weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter. I participate in the Amazon affiliates program. If you were to purchase one of the resources listed above through the links provided in the pictures or book titles, I may receive a small commission. |
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