Thursday, March 12, 2009

On Lent

Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend. We were talking through some of the issues that they were dealing with. Somewhere in the conversation, my friend said "It's funny that Lent is a time of self-sacrifice and I'm being selfish." I thought about that statement for a moment because, as I've participated in this season, I've reflected on why I'm doing it in the first place.
My answer to my friend was something like this: I see Lent as a time of self-sacrifice, but not for the reason of trying to look holy before God and making ourselves miserable. I think of it more as a time of forgiveness and finding a new grace. I'm a messed up person with deep, unconfessed issues that keep me from fully communing with God. These forty days are time for me to confess to God and break before him so that on Easter Sunday I can stand and worship. Because of Jesus' death, I'm forgiven. Because of the Resurrection, I'm truly free.

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