There's more

Lent is officially upon us y'all! We've got our toes in the water of this holy season.
 A little fun fact about me; I was raised in an Episcopalian church. For those of you that weren't (basically everyone under the age of 50), the Episcopalian church is as far traditional as you can get on a protestant "contemporary to traditional" scale. The next stop is the Catholic church. It is very centered around liturgies and every service is almost like a ceremony. It's very regal and entrancing to watch, but until the age of 15 I just wasn't understanding or feeling any Jesus from the services, so I started going to a Methodist church down the street. Now, all that to say, I was raised with Lent as a part of life. It's just as natural as the Christmas season or my birthday season (let's face it: there's major hype the week or so leading up to our birthdays, am I right?). So when I started going to a methodist church on Sunday nights, I did not expect for Lent to be a foreign word and season for 90% of the people attending. However, I just kept on doing what I was raised doing.
Each year, Lent rolls around, and I give up one or two or three things, and maybe tack on something that I want to add to my Lenten "resolutions". But daog-on my heart was NOT feeling that dreaded sacrifice this year. It really hit me that I was simply going through the motions. I had checked into the crowd of just giving up stuff and not pointing any of it back to Jesus. So I started to look into what Lent is really meant to be. More than that, why people originally started to sacrifice from or to add to their daily lives.
Guess what?! IT'S MORE THAN JUST MAKING A NEW SET OF RESOLUTIONS. So often, and this is pointed at my own heart too, I just feel like Lent turns into a competition of who can give up the most, or who can make what they're giving up sound like the absolute h-a-r-d-e-s-t sacrifice they could possibly dream of making. Some even have lists that are a mile long of what they're imposing on themselves until Easter. Each time, I just can't help but tell God "I'm sorry this is how Lent is. I know You want more than this."
So first, let's talk about a few things Lent is not. Lent is not meant to be "Round 2" of making New Year's Resolutions. Lent is not meant to be a season of whining about what you gave up. Lent is not when you give up something that doesn't even have a large impact on your life (kinda like if I gave up Hershey's kisses, I don't like them so I stay away from them anyways, do you get what I'm saying?). Finally, Lent is NOT for bragging on yourself.
Now, that was nice and therapeutic, but let's talk about what Lent IS. The good stuff. The Jesus filled stuff.
Lent is a HOLY season. Lent is a time period to reflect on what Jesus did for us. Lent is what leads up to when Jesus took ALL of EVERYONE'S sins and threw them away. So Lent gives us room to realize the weight of our sins...to realize that Jesus was and is our only hope and our only chance at eternal life. Lent is a season to put yourself closer to Jesus. Everything that Lent symbolizes should draw us closer to Jesus's feet. Lent is an annual season, an annual reminder, an annual "Hey let's just lay here in the presence of our King and worship him for who He is". And that is the point, the reason, of why we make sacrifices from, or add on to our daily lives. To draw us nearer to Jesus. To put our focus more clearly on Him. So giving up something that doesn't really stand in your way is pointless, aside from giving you something to say when people ask what you are doing for Lent. The other half of that is giving up an excessive amount of things, which is totally great if those things are separating you from Jesus, but if they're not then again, they're basically New Year's Resolutions and probably giving you a sense of pride. Along with that is giving up half way. If you give up something that is keeping you from sitting with Jesus, GREAT that's GOOD!, but then you see another thing in your life and you think to yourself "Well I'm not going to give that up too...then I'll be bored all the time!" or "I could never give that up" or "I cannot imagine giving that up." then maybe that is exactly what you should be giving up. Whatever feels impossible to do without, or like you could never let go of, that is a worldly object that you are putting more value in than your relationship with our Maker.
 I just want to challenge you to really ask God to show you the deep areas of your heart or of your life that you might not even realize are there, but that you are really putting way too much value in. I just pray for each and every one of us, myself include, that we would use this Lent season to really and truly recommit ourselves to Jesus. To remember who He is and what He did and why He did it, that that may bring us to a point of pure awe and worship, that we would be blinded by his GOODNESS and GLORY and just praise him for who He is over and over and over again, until we're out of words and can only feel it in our hearts. AMEN.



**Here's a link to She Reads Truth, a stinking AWESOME devotional website, and the introduction to their Lent study. They're words are so much wiser than mine, so you should really click to read what they have to say http://shereadstruth.com/2015/02/17/jesus-keep-near-cross/ **