Lent is the season of forty days (minus the Sundays!) between Ash Wednesday and Easter. It is a season of preparation in advance of our commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ. Lent is a formal time set aside for us to rid our lives of the burden of sin that we accumulate as we go through life. Small sins of unkindness. Large sins of unfaithfulness. Sins of dishonesty. Sins of inaction. All of these sins attach themselves to us through the simple business of living—often going without our notice. What we seek to do during Lent is look at them—notice them –and seek to rid ourselves of them.
In 2 Corinthians 6:4-10, Paul instructs us to use whatever life throws at us (and between the pandemic, political turmoil and economic struggles the past year has thrown a lot our way) as a means of ridding our lives of sin and becoming true servants of God— “great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.” All our life experiences, even those that leave us feeling “beaten up” can be transformed into means by which we deepen our relationship with God. We usually think of “giving up” something for Lent. But we can also take things on. We can challenge ourselves to do acts of service or extraordinary exercises in patience and forbearance. Any situation in which we find ourselves can be used to our spiritual benefit if we will tune our minds in that direction. So during this Lent let us use everything in our lives, positive and negative, to sharpen our attention upon God and to replace our shortcomings with the potential for faithful life that God has put within each of us... Ron PS...If you have a copy I encourage you to use “Lent in Plain Sight: A Devotion Through Ten Objects” by Jill Duffield, as a very helpful resource during Lent 2021!
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February 2021
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Starkville Presbyterian Church PC(USA) Starkville, MS | Ron's Reflections |