What is the point of Lent? That's Ann Voskamp's topic today. Are you having trouble deciding what to give up for Lent? Or, have you just decided to give up Lent? What is Lent? Ann tells us:
It’s the preparing the heart for Easter. Like going with Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, that we might come face to ugly face with our enemy. Our sacrificing that we might become more like Christ in His sacrifice.”
...It is an irrefutable law: One needs to be dispossessed of all the possessions that possess us — before one can be possessed of God.
...I turn towards our Lenten wreath, this path we mark for 40 Days with a moving forward of a symbol of the cross, a moving forward of the candle.
Forty days, I am reflecting on my cross, my sins.
My lent has me hard after the light…
Looking hard for release from this messy body of death.
And there is Jesus.
Jesus with a crown of thorns. Jesus bent low, God carrying my rotting mess, Grace doing what I cannot do, and I cannot ascend to God but He will descend to me.
...A failing lent? It is a good Lent because this lament of our sin — is exactly what prepares us for Resurrection Joy found in our Savior.
Lent gives us this gift: the deeper we know the pit of our messiness & sin, the deeper we’ll drink from the draughts of His joy.
Grief is what cultivates the soil for the seeds of joy.
Go
here to read Ann's thoughtful piece, and see the accompanying photos.
