LENT

The Season Of Lent is officially upon us....Ash Wednesday was yesterday! I know there are lots of folks who don't practice Lent and lots of folks who do! If you don't know much about Lent, then here's the condensed 411 explanation....

You, as a Christian and follower of Jesus Christ, are suppose to make a sacrifice on his behalf. In other words, He gave up everything for us; so we in turn are suppose to give up something for Him for the 40 days (not including Sundays) until Easter. Really it can be anything, but I believe it should be something that's really really really challenging to give up...to make more of an impact....so that every time you think about, crave, long for, etc. what you gave up; you can think of JESUS and what HE sacrificed for us! This year our church has taken a little bit of a different approach. We are still encouraged to participate in Lent in the traditional.....give up something that hurts.....kinda way and fast and pray, but we are also being encouraged to take something on. We have been reading and studying Rich Stearns' book "The Hole In Our Gospel", and as I've written before.....it has been life changing for me and many others. I've been feeling a nudge to do something more....a call if you will....and after I read the book, I knew the call was to do something BIG and BOLD! I've been on my knees many days praying for God to reveal it to me, praying for patience in waiting for the revelation, praying that I will know when it's revealed and follow through. I've been anxious, frustrated, frightened out of my wits, and extremely excited. Back to the concept of taking something on.....the premise of the book is that we are called to help the poor....plain and simple! So our church has put wooden crosses around the campus with pieces of paper nailed to them. The congregation is encouraged to choose 1 or 5 or 10 or 50 or however many pieces of paper we want to. When I was at church for Bible Study today, I read over a few....donate $ to buy a family a goat through World Vision, donate $ to help Weekend Food or Feed Our Kids (a ministry our church has to help under priveleged children have enough food to eat), volunteer at Grace (our local place of relief), there were literally hundreds of pieces of paper; and we have been assured that there are hundreds more when those are gone. I haven't chosen mine yet, but I will soon. I really feel I need to pray about what I need to choose. We had a Lenten workshop for our children last night before our Ash Wednesday service, and Drew and Bryna both chose something off the tree that Pastor Nathan had. Bryna chose to pray for poor, sick, hungry and figure out a way to help those in need. I think she has decided to donate lots of her toys to Grace, so some children who don't have any toys may get the chance to actually have toys....pretty appropriate for a 6 year old. Drew chose to earn $13 and buy a chicken for a family through World Vision which will supply them with food and income through the eggs the chicken lays.....very appropriate for a 9 year old....especially for my 9 year old who has a heart of gold. I told Addi, my soon to be teenager....HELP ME HENRY.....that she would need to pick something from one of the crosses to do....she agreed. It's exciting and heartbreaking.....to be able to help by simply donating money....if you so choose. It baffles me daily on how our world can have so many people dying from starvation.....we have plenty of food, resources, and money....it breaks my heart to know that there is such waste. Don't get me wrong, I'm not placing judgements....believe me....I've done my share of wasting. Reading the book has changed my perspective on so many things....waste is one of them....answering God's call to do something more....something BIG and BOLD is another. I've responded many times to nudges, but I don't think I've ever been nudged so extremely or maybe it's just that I didn't listen enough! Either way, I'm listening.....MY EYES AND EARS AND HEART ARE OPEN!