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Lent begins on Wednesday. Even though I don't always keep up with the church calendar, the idea of Lent has always appealed to me. Easter is supposed to be the most important celebration of the church year. Jesus was raised from the dead! That news is amazing in itself, but Lent allows a period of 40 days to truly ponder the depth of our own sin and our need for a Savior. It can help us come to the foot of the cross, lay down those sins, and come face to face with the One who not only died for us, but was raised from the tomb and who lives and reigns today.
Over the years, I've had one of two responses to this season. The first is to begin it with the best of intentions. I attend an Ash Wednesday service, and leave with a gray cross on my forehead and a commitment to give up dessert, read extra Bible passages and take time to truly reflect on the coming celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ. The way this turns out... well let's just say I really like dessert, I misplace my Bible sometime around the second Sunday, and my time of reflection gets replaced by preparing for extra worship services along with all the other things on my to-do list. My second response is to remember that I rarely follow through on my resolutions anyway, so I don't even try. It's very similar to my love-hate relationship with new year's resolutions I wrote about a couple months ago.
This year I'm going to give it another go. Here's my plan... I'm going to focus my attention on the hymns of Lent. Many of us are probably familiar with the Advent and Christmas sections of most hymnals, but the Lenten hymns don't get as much playing time. I'm opening up some space in my next 40 days for the Holy Spirit to teach me through these hymns. My goal is to post a hymn each week. I invite you to join me and help me stay on track with this quest by reading along, listening, and offering your comments along the way.
A couple questions to start the discussion - How have you observed Lent in the past (if at all)? How has this impacted your relationship with Jesus? How do you plan to spend the season of Lent this year?