the last week of Lent...

Spring is in the air... 

As I type this up, the children are playing outside, the sun is shining and it is 7:15 p.m. 

(Seize the day when the sun is out around here...) 

birthday flowers still blooming joy... 

Easter is near!! 

(flowers in the front yard) 

I admit that I felt like a fledgling in my attempts to honor Lent in some ways, and I am grateful that there is another week to consider the cost of the week ahead and to ask God to help prepare our hearts to celebrate Easter... 

"The  season of Lent is puzzling to many. Denying ourselves our favorite treats or habits- even for a short time- seems archaic in our I-want-it-now culture. Lent is a plodding, definitive crescendo that leads up to the cacophonous noise of Good Friday and the gorgeous aria of Easter. It’s a season marked by deliberateness and intentionality. 

But we often get in the way of our own best intentions. When fasting we might be tempted to feel a sense of pride about our sacrifice. The very thing we relinquish sometimes clamors inside us as a “need” to be met.  Instead of focusing on Jesus Christ, our attention can dangerously be drawn to the very thing we’ve voluntarily surrendered.

Even so, the practice of Lent can be a valuable discipline. It’s difficult to grasp what our sense of entitlement does to our bodies and souls. Our culture worships at the feet of pleasure.  As we “shovel it in,” we can become desensitized to our needs- the real hungers in our lives. Observing Lent can help us wrestle with the causes of our perpetual consumption. When we decide to relinquish what fails to truly satisfy, we come face-to-face with some tough questions. Can we believe Jesus when he says, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”?  How can we make room for the Savior in our lives? Can we grasp the reality of Good Friday and live within its irony?

Lent challenges us to consider the honest answers to these and other soul-searching questions.  It invites us to jump off the hamster wheel of consumption and experience the pinch of abstaining from thoughtless indulgence…. The reality of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and the power of his love break through our hardened hearts. The realization causes us to gasp. The hollow parts of our souls can be filled.   -Eileen Button Mosaic Bible devotional