Lent

Until about five or six year ago, the season of Lent passed for me without so much as a second thought. I'd never really heard about it or studies more of what it was. It seems like in the last few years, it is something that has gained more popularity (for lack of a better term) in evangelical churches in North America. And I think that's a good thing. (It's my opinion that it's a good thing. I know others disagree with that. I'm not here to argue whether we should or should not observe it.)

Growing up Good Friday and Easter were always important. I knew why we took the time we did on that weekend and I looked forward to them. But I often felt like they kind of snuck up on me. I'd be going through life and then all of a sudden it was Palm Sunday, which meant that the next weekend was Easter. I sometimes felt like I needed more time to reflect on things, and to find myself in a place where I could really celebrate the resurrection and the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. Maybe it's because I'm a reflective person by nature.

Then about five or six years ago, the young adults pastor at my church took one night that we were meeting to talk about Lent - what it was and why it could be important. It struck me as possibly being what I was looking for in the weeks leading up to Easter. It seems like we spend the weeks before Christmas preparing for it - in decorating and buying gifts, but also in church activities and programs that point us to the reason we, as followers of Christ, celebrate Christmas. So, I was kind of glad to know that there was something that was a part of church history that came in the weeks leading up to Easter.

When the young adults pastor at my church talked about it, he talked about the idea of Lent being a time of sacrifice. I know lots of people give up something for the time, with the purpose of going without that being to point them to and draw them to Christ. It's a time to slow down and reflect on what Jesus did in paying the ultimate sacrifice for our sin and conquering death.

Some years I have given things up. Other years I haven't. But I have made it a part of this time of year - these weeks leading up to Easter - to slow down and spend time focused on what was going on in the weeks leading to the cross for Jesus. For me, it's been about being intentional about that.

And I think that is the key - being intentional. Growing up in the church I could have told you the reason why we celebrate Easter at a young age. I knew the answers and I could rattle them off. Most of the time I appreciate that, but sometimes it means things don't penetrate my heart, unless I'm intentional.

What about you? How do you choose to observe or not observe Lent? What does it mean to you?

post #301

I was looking at my post history and noticed that I have hit the 300 post mark and that means it somehow seems like that is something I should acknowledge in some way, so this will not be a typical post for me. To be honest, it kind of surprised me. I never expected this to last this long. I started posting things on this blog on October 20, 2007. At the time I wasn't sure if I would have anything to say or if I would actually make the time to write. I guess it's safe to say that all these posts later, I did have things to write and I did make the time to do so - whether anyone actually reads it is beside the point for me.

I've been reading some of the early posts I wrote and looking at some of the things I've written on. It's been interesting to journey back to what I was thinking about and try to remember what was going on in my life at that point. I've probably repeated myself a few times over the years with things I've written about. As life circumstances have changed, I've come back to the same things and God has taught me the same lesson again if I was too stubborn to learn it the first time or taken a lesson a little bit further the second time.

I've definitely wondered at times if I would continue to post things here. Sometimes it has seemed like I was out of things to write about. Sometimes I wonder if what I am saying would upset too many people. Sometimes I worry that I will say something that is possibly heretical. But, I usually come to the conclusion that we grow most when we are challenged by things. If someone really does disagree with something I say I will happily discuss it further with them - either on the blog or via email. It causes me to grow in my own walk when I have to rethink things and see them from another person's point of view.

I write about whatever is going on in my life, or what I'm thinking about, or what God is saying to me. Sometimes that means family, or friends, or the church. Sometimes it comes from Scripture, or a quote, or a book, or something a friend said. Or maybe it's just a song I enjoy currently. Really, even if no one was to read this, I don't know that it would really matter to me. A journey that I've been on for the last 5 years is recorded here in a different way than my journals record it. And they supplement each other.

I enjoy writing because it helps me make sense of my thoughts. And I have no intention to stop writing. But I also continue to make no promises about what will show up on this blog, or how frequently (or maybe better said infrequently) I will write.

Blessings to you on your journey with God. May you grow deeper in your walk and never give up on seeking God with everything you have.

learning from the experience's of others

Do we really mean it when we say we want to learn from others instead of having to do through the experience of it ourselves? If we do mean it, why so we so often still go through the same thing and make the same mistakes ourselves? Why does it seem to be so hard to learn from other's experiences?

I've been thinking about these questions for a while. I'm currently working through Beth Moore's study on the book of Daniel with a group of ladies at my church and in a couple of spots in the weekly homework she has talked about learning the lesson from someone else's experience, rather than learning it through our own experience. King Nebachadnezzar of Babylon offers us a couple of examples we would do well to learn from his experience rather than our own. (I won't be getting into them in this blog, but you can read about some of them in Daniel 3 and 4.) As I read and study these passages, my desire is to learn from them so I never have to experience them myself. That would be much easier and more pleasant.

This is my second time doing this particular study and as I dig in again, I find that although I may have wanted to learn the lesson by reading about it and studying it, I didn't always do so. In the years between when I first did this study and now, I've had to learn some of the exact things spoken about in Daniel through my own experience. I didn't intend to, but that is the way the lessons actually stuck in my life.

It makes me wonder why that seems to happen so often in our lives. We don't just seem to fail to learn from other's bad experiences about things we need to avoid because they are sin. We can also fail to learn from other's experiences about things we need to embrace in our lives. Our lives are far too short to learn everything for ourselves, but it seems like that is often how we try to do it.

The big question I have is: Why? Why does it seem to be so difficult for us to learn from other's experiences? We desire to. We even do sometimes. But we could spare ourselves a lot of pain in life if we learned from every other person's experience all the time, rather than just sometimes. I don't know why this is so hard. All I know is that the things that have really stuck for me are the things I learned from my own experience. And I'm still left to wonder why I don't learn better from others.

I don't have an answer for this. I would love to hear you thoughts on this one.