Lent begins in just a few short weeks. It’s a time when we’re asked to consider our spiritual lives and our own spiritual well being. Traditionally people give things up for Lent, things that they’re used to having. It’s a challenge. It gives them a better appreciation for what they have. It’s a discipline. But spiritual aspects should already be a discipline of our lives. We should be praying and worshiping God on a regular basis.
So with Lent coming quickly, I want you to look at your life spiritually. What can you do to improve your connection with God? What can you do to deepen your relationship with our creator?
It might be giving something up. It might be doing something for someone else. I remember one distinct year when I was in fifth grade and our minister asked the congregation to do something for someone else instead of giving something up for themselves. The entirety of Lent my mother made my bed for me, except on Sundays. Every day. I remember at the end of it she had hoped I would learn how to make my bed every day in the morning. It didn’t happen, but she had done something for someone else and that had transformed her.
Suddenly it wasn’t about making a bed, but it was about a ritual practice when for a few minutes each morning she thought about God and why she was doing something. She intentionally spent time in worship with our Creator while she folded sheets and straightened the covers.
We are the body of Christ, and sometimes we need to be reminded that each part of the body works for God. The work we are doing in our everyday life, even if it’s something we don’t always enough, is for God and for Christ and is a spiritual practice so long as we think about why and for whom we are doing it.
This year, we have put together a Lenten Devotional. There are prayers, devotions, scriptures and more in it. There is a daily calendar with suggestions for things you can do and focus on. Take what you will, modify what you want. But do something, do something for God in this world that is in such throes of chaos.
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