Lent - Laying It Down

I thought this was a great article about Lent and Ash Wednesday. Courtesy of Next-Wave Online E-zine.

LENT - LAYING IT DOWN
by Bob Hyatt

For those of us who are trying to hear the voice of Christ, we need regular times of focusing on Christ's call to follow, to lay down our lives for one another. Lent is one of those times- a period of 40 days not including Sundays which are given to considering what we will lay down, what we will not. What our lives count for, or how they fail to count. We hear the call of Jesus and struggle all over again to die to ourselves and live for Christ and others. The journey of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Good Friday and Easter, showing us in sharp relief the exact cost of our sin, and the means by which God will restore all things.

Ash Wednesday begins Lent by reminding us that the journey towards the Cross is one every Christ follower must make- step by step, selfish impulse by selfish impulse. And Ash Wednesday also reminds us that the time is finite, limited... because it reminds us of our mortality.

So, this year, even if you missed Ash Wedneday, observe a Lent of self-examination and repentance; of prayer, and fasting, of saying "no" to self and "yes" to God and others; and of reading and meditating on God's Word, listening all over again for the call of Christ on your life.

In Gen 3:19 as God explains the consequences of their sin to Adam and Eve, He makes this statement: You are dust and to dust you shall return.

Has anyone ever told you that?
No?

Well, it's not something we often say to one another...

You are dust and to dust you shall return.

Why do you think God might have made that statement to Adam and Eve? What do you think He might have been trying to communicate?

Ash Wednesday is a day to remember that our days are numbered- that our lives, no matter how long we live, are short. That every day is a gift and with it we serve either God or ourselves. We spend it either binding ourselves tighter and tighter to the things of this world, or following more and more closely in the steps of Jesus. The problem is, we really can't do both. We're heading in either one direction or the other.
And even when we are heading in a generally God-ward direction, it's all too easy to pick up extraneous baggage- things which slow us down, things which hinder us in this race we are trying to run.
Hebrews says:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin."

"Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up" While it should be an all day, every day kind of thing, the reality is- we forget. We forget to "throw off" the things that slow us down. We pick up attachments, we pick up weights, we pick up sin. And Lent is that intentional time in the Christian Calendar when we begin to think about putting things down again.

One of the most beautiful parts of this time of Lent is that it shows us just how deep the connections we have made throughout the year with this world go- how deep our need for self-soothing through sweets, food, alcohol, TV, whatever has become. How little we have relied on Jesus and how much we have relied on everything else... on things that will themselves ultimately become nothing more than ashes and dust.

I love the narrative of the Gospel of Luke. It's structured as one long walk by Jesus from the northern part of Israel, all the way down to Jerusalem. It shows us that His ministry- teaching people, healing people, forgiving people, feeding people- all of it came in the context of a journey towards the Cross. All of it was important, all of it mattered... but all of it served the larger plot of Jesus laying down His life for you and me.

Jesus calls us on that journey with Him. Following in His steps, taking up a cross...
Let this Lent be a step in that journey for you.