Time Marches On

I don't think I've actually recovered my sense of where we are in the calendar since my wife and I went to South Africa.  It kind of feels like we misplaced a month - for delightful reasons I might add - and it's as if my internal sense of time and season has been completely disrupted.  Somewhere in the space time continuum lies the answer... ;)  

So here I am writing this note on Shrove Tuesday (also called Fat Tuesday and Pancake Day) and tomorrow begins the season of Lent.  Yikes.  I usually have some kind of plan surrounding the season of Lent.  At least I have over the past few years, but this year my internal alarm clock didn't make a sound so here I am just thinking about it now... on Shrove Tuesday.  I have always looked forward to Lent as a time to begin preparing for Easter.  After all, the original idea (at least from the 4th Century onward) was to prepare candidates for Baptism to occur during the most Holy Season of the church calendar.   Now it just seems like a reason to head to places like New Orleans or Rio to party during Mardis Gras (Fat Tuesday.)  Since you have to give up carnal things during Lent you might as well indulge... at least that's what the world suggests.

But we are not of the world if we claim to follow Christ.  We are in the world, but not of it; we belong to the King of kings who died in our place in the cross bearing our sins upon His shoulders.  He died that we might have life and if a season like Lent can teach us something, it is, at the very least, an opportunity to draw closer to the Lord and that usually means giving up something in order to focus more clearly on Christ.

So what will I give up in order to spend more time with the Lord to draw near to him?  Quite frankly, as I type this, I don't know.  As I said, my seasonal clock is haywire and I haven't given it much thought.  At least not until now.  

How about you?  Do you know the Lord?  If not, click here.  If you do, then be challenged: what are you doing to draw closer to Him?

May the Season of Lent be a time of renewal, refreshment, refining and an opportunity for you to draw closer to Christ.

Until Next Time,
Pastor Al

PS - Here are a few resources to guide you in a Lenten Journey:
Praying Through Lent:  http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/index.html
and here: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/getinvolved/lent/index.aspx
Protestant View of Lent: http://www.kencollins.com/holy-04.htm

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