Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. I love the liturgical seasons of the year because it gives me the chance to celebrate the life of Christ through the rhythm of time. Each year, through the Seasons, I participate in the drama of His redemptive journey of sacrificial love. Lent is such an awesome season because its a time of extravagance. We’ve talked about lately that Hebrews 12:29 says that ‘God is a consuming fire.’ There is nothing casual or passive about that description of God. He wants all that we are, and Lent is that season where we get to evaluate the condition of our own hearts. Lent asks the question, “Are you willing to give it all.” Lent challenges the extravagance level of our surrender to His consuming fire. Lent gives us the opportunity to repent of any halfheartedness that may have crept in, and find the extravagant mercy God offers to those who are honest with Him. Hopefully we live with this attitude all year, but Lent kicks it up a notch with fresh passion. It’s like a spiritual deep cleaning. Lent forces our spiritual lives to never allow boredom to settle in. I want to be abandoned to Him in total wholeheartedness. Lent gives me the opportunity to slow down and evaluate where I’m at in that quest, and rediscover my desperation for Him. It reminds me that the Kingdom of Heaven is for the “poor in spirit.” Tomorrow I get to wear the sign of the Cross on my forehead as a reminder, and public testimony that as a weak, finite person I belong Him, and am exclusively His, the Lover and Redeemer of my soul. Plunge in tomorrow. Ask Him to take you away, this Lent, to a place you’ve never been but have always longed for.
