“What are you going to give up for Lent?” If you grew up in a Catholic, Lutheran, or liturgical tradition, you may be familiar with this common question as the season begins. That’s because Lent—the forty days excluding Sundays leading up to Easter—in the Church, is traditionally a time for self-examination, self-denial, humility and repentance. During Lent, we walk with Jesus as he makes his somber and sobering way towards the unfolding of his dark destiny: the cross. Churches throughout history have invited congregants to voluntarily give up something for the purpose of determining the hold it has on us and opening ourselves to God more. We give up in order to get. We turn from in order to turn towards.

I didn’t grow up in a church that encouraged this practice at all. In fact, we were skeptical of those who did. It seemed unnecessary, superficial, devoid of meaning, and susceptible to a lot of abuses. And of course it can be. It’s possible to practice any spiritual discipline without producing genuine fruit. But the more Lenten seasons I experience, the more my heart yearns to enter into this time of the Church year meaningfully. If Jesus is my model in life, then He should be my model in death as well.

So this Lenten season, we will be walking with Jesus as He approaches death. And we will watch Him turn away from all kinds of temptations in order to express pure devotion to God. Jesus says No in order to say Yes. He says No to temptation—from the Evil One himself—No to self-promotion, to other gods, and to common cultural values of his day. And because He says No to those, He can also say Yes—Yes to God’s kingdom, to God’s glory, and to God’s purposes for Him. With Jesus as our model, we, too, will be invited into Turning: From Temptation to Devotion. We are invited to turn from sin and temptation and to God and His great mercy; from others’ agendas for us and to the mission God has for us.  

This is why the Church had traditionally encouraged practices like fasting or abstaining from whatever dependencies we rely on during Lent. Maybe this year, you’ll want to linger more in practices that sharpen spiritual awareness like: prayer and Scripture meditation, self-examination, fasting or other forms of abstinence, silence and solitude, or acts of generosity and service. Even if something is new to you, why not conduct a little experiment? It’s only 40 days!

So, this season of repentance and self-examination, what are you going to give up for Lent? It takes humility and courage to ask that question and to seek practices that help strip away unhealthy dependencies. But every No is a Yes to God! And God will give us grace to turn away from all our temptations and to full devotion to Him!

And as we turn to God, we will discover God has already turned in mercy towards us.

~Amy Rowell, Senior Pastor