Yesterday I referred to our desert places and also to the promise of breakthrough following our season in the wilderness. Often such places can be a time of preparation for the next thing the Lord wants to birth in our lives, and we need that time of preparation, painful though it may be. If God chose to put his own son through a time of testing and preparation, why should it be any different for us? We too are his children.
During this season of Lent I’m sure we all have our own 40 day Lenten practices and these may have changed over the years. Today I will share my current one, it is not right or wrong (I’m a pilgrim not a preacher) but of course it begins with pancakes!
The Rev. Dick Hotchkin, at St. John’s United Church of Christ in Port Huron, said:
“Most Christians recognize Lent as a time of preparation “looking at one’s life and seeing how one might make improvements or changes. I don’t think Jesus is as worried about giving up chocolates and things like that as he is about giving up things we harbour in the secret recesses of our hearts, giving up those things that make us small of soul are more important than giving up chocolates”.
This used to be my view of Lent—40 days of chocolate-less Facebook, however for the past few years I have been adopting a different attitude which started when a dear sister in Christ (now a super-Rev) shared her decision to give up ‘complaining’ rather than ‘chocolate’ and I loved this radical idea. I even thought it might be easier than giving up chocolate but was soon proven misguided in that assumption.
This Lent I chose to focus on (not give up) ‘gratitude’ - a gratitude for the gift of life in this world, troubled though it may be. Each morning I look at two recent ‘order of service’ funeral sheets of loved ones who were both my age, I remind myself of the gift of each new day on this earth.
When we set out to practice gratitude we discover that grateful people are happier, healthier, live longer, and are just more enjoyable to be around.
The calendar on my desk this week reads “Lent is not a deprivation, but rather a reminder of what you have been blessed with” and I must say, I am prone to agree.
Dawn Milward
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