What Comes Next? The Season of Lent

2/23/22 What Comes Next? The Season of Lent  Glenda Simpkins Hoffman

Someone encouraged me to visit Michaels to get an idea for this blog, so I finally did. There I discovered an entire aisle still filled with Christmas decorations. Apparently, many of them didn’t come in until almost Christmas due to the supply chain problem. So the trees, angels, and lights are still sitting there at the end of February. Even 80%-off sales are not tempting many to buy because we are done with Christmas. There was still a display of decorations for Valentine’s Day, also now a thing of the past. I was delighted to discover for the first time Black History Month decorations, but even that will conclude in just a few more days. 

Now, Easter decorations are front and center with bunnies, carrots, eggs, flowers, and other images of spring in full few. Offering a glimpse of what this holiday is really about, there were a few crosses—but not many. 

I like holidays, and I like decorations. They are fun and can bring a sense of joy as we celebrate seasons and special occasions, which is important to do. But I confess that though the Easter candy and decorations are on display, I’m not ready for that yet. I’m longing for a different season that is about to begin.   

Lent begins a week from today, March 2, on Ash Wednesday. I hope you will join us for worship that evening at 7:00 p.m. I don’t know about you, but I’m always ready for this season by the end of February. Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I take time to think and pray about how I want to live intentionally in the coming year in giving my attention to God, living in his kingdom, and loving him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and my neighbor as myself. I don’t make resolutions because they rely too heavily on the will, but I do seek direction for the ways I can offer myself to God for transformation and service.  

Though I have good intentions and plans, I’m always grateful for the beginning of Lent. It comes at the right time when I’m ready to renew my intention and start again. That is especially true this year. I love the season of Lent that begins in winter and ends in spring, at least for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. We walk with Jesus to the cross and then celebrate the joy of the resurrection and the gift of new life at the end of it.  

The beginning of Lent connects well to our study of Nehemiah. We are now halfway through the book: the wall is built, but the work is not over. The mission wasn’t just to reconstruct the city’s defenses but to rebuild the people of God for the glory of God, to restore a community of people whose purpose was to love, worship, and serve the Lord. God’s people were to demonstrate and declare God’s good news to the nations around them waiting for God’s Messiah to come. 

Nehemiah recognized that great victories can set the stage for great failures or great defeats if attention isn’t given to “what comes next.” He wisely realized that opposition doesn’t cease simply because a project arrives at completion. Nehemiah wanted to do more than simply restore the walls and gates; he sought to revitalize other aspects of the life of the city. Essentially, he gets the right people in the right places to provide for protection and safety, worship, and good leadership. Above all else, he prays. 

What strikes me most is that Nehemiah never forgot his own identity. He knew who he was. He knew he belonged to God and that he was part of God’s people. He had a ministry to perform, and a lifestyle to model for others. He never forgot that God had sent him to Jerusalem to work and demonstrate to people how to live. That held him steady when there were pressures against him. He prayed and subjected everything to the wisdom of God. He had become the kind of person who was able to do what needed to be done. 

The lessons we learn from Nehemiah are wonderful truths to seek to live out more intentionally during the season of Lent. We too need to know that we really belong to God. Our capacity to love God and others is dependent on our experience of being loved by God. Our doing (loving and serving God and the people) is to flow from our being (a deep personal experience of being unconditionally loved by God and saved by his amazing grace).  This is needed all the time, but Lent provides an opportunity to make a turn, to go in a new direction, to renew our commitment, to deepen our faith, and expand our capacity to love God and others.  

Part of the traditional Ash Wednesday service includes The Invitation to the Observance of the Lenten Discipline: “Friends in Christ, every year at the time of the Christian Passover, we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lent is a time to prepare for this celebration and to renew our life in the paschal mystery. We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance, and for the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes. This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and marked the penitence of this community. I invite you now in the name of Christ, to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and penitence, by prayer and fasting, by works of love, and by reading and meditating on the Word of God.” 

This invitation connects with what we will see in Nehemiah in the weeks ahead—a return to hearing God’s word, confession and repentance, prayer and fasting, giving and worshipping. The invitation is not to gut out spiritual disciplines—to simply try harder and do more. Instead, it is to arrange our lives intentionally so that we turn away from our sin and turn to God. It is an invitation to become more aware of the God who is always with us and to become more like him. 

It is easy to live distracted and demanding lives that weigh us down. Life is challenging, to be sure, and there are many things we cannot control. But we can choose practices, relationships, and experiences that help us to grow in our relationship with our great Triune God.  Is your deep longing to experience the steadfast love of God that never ends? To rest in the grace of Christ that is always sufficient? To rely on the power of the Spirit who alone can do in and through and for you what needs to be done? 

Lent is the season we choose disciplines that help us to focus on Jesus and his death and resurrection. It is a season God can use to change our lives, if we want that and are willing to give ourselves to him in intentional ways. I’ll be writing more about some of these disciplines in the weeks ahead. And if you want to explore some of them in community with others, I urge you to consider participating in a seven-week small group study called The Lent Experience that will begin the second week of March. Learn more and sign up here. 

The 40 days of Lent will come and go. Trees will be budding and flowers will be blooming, and we will celebrate the glory of our Lord’s resurrection. The only question is whether we will grow and change in this season in becoming more like Christ together for the world. May it be so.  

Loving, Lord, you are always with us, but too often we live with no awareness. Help us in the coming Lenten season to return to you knowing you are always ready and eager to welcome us home. Help us find the ways we can live more intentionally as we give our attention to you in the coming season of Lent. We long to become like you and to experience more deeply your love, grace, and power so that we may love you and love others as you have loved us.