Reflection and Awe: Lent's PurposeSample

Welcome to Reflection and Awe: Lent's Purpose

This time of year is incredibly significant for many Christians across the globe. You may have never heard of Lent, or maybe it’s just a distant thought from years ago. Traditionally, Lent marks the 40 days, excluding Sundays, before Easter within the church calendar. Many people use this time as an opportunity to give up something or fast from an activity, like social media, chocolate, or sugar. But Lent is so much more than just giving things up or a tradition.

Lent is a period of preparation, an invitation for believers to restore a sense of awe and deep reflection on Jesus Christ's sacrifice. As Advent prepares us to celebrate Jesus' birth at Christmas, Lent is Easter's Advent, a time to reflect on Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and restore the respect and awe we carry for Him.

Over the coming days, we will explore some key themes and special days during this period. Together, we will look at topics like fasting, prayer, servanthood, freedom, and hope in Christ, and discover what that means for us today.

At the beginning of Lent, there is a special day called Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, small palm crosses, made for last year’s Palm Sunday celebration, are burned to ash. The priest takes the ash and makes a mark of a cross on the forehead of the believer to remember that from dust we came, and to dust we will go.

How often do you think about your mortality? It may be a faraway thought for many of us, not front and center every day. Maybe for you, it feels much more like an active reality. It has been said that two things are certain: death and taxes. Although we, as believers, have other assurances and certainties, physical death will eventually come to us all.

But we have a hope that this life, and our departing from it, is not the end of the story. When we said yes to Jesus, eternity was secured for us, and yet so often we struggle to live like that is a reality for us. Even as Christians, we are not exempt from the pull of material, earthly things.

First John 2:16-18 reminds us:

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Let’s live with eternity as a reality, our eyes fixed on the life to come, building with things that will not perish but last.

Ash Wednesday is a great opportunity for us to "burn up" the things that have overtaken us, consumed us, and taken our attention away from the Lord. It’s a chance to remember that one day, all the concerns of this world will fade and return to ashes in the light of the Glory of God. Let’s choose to live today in light of eternity, our eyes heavenward on the prize of Heaven and holding lightly to the things of this world.