Lent. While it may be a new idea to you, it's an old idea to the Church. Around 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea approved it as a yearly practice for the church. They also wrote a pretty solid Creed.
Since then, Christians have been observing a period of preparation leading up to Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. Each year, when one enters into the Lenten season, they are giving up something in order to prepare themselves for Easter, to invite God to work in their abstention, fasting, praying, worshiping so that He can further work in them, making them more like Christ (which is our long-obedience-in-the-same-direction goal).
The call is rooted in Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, where He fasted, for forty days! I love that the Scriptures tell us that Jesus was 'led by the Spirit' into the wilderness, and then He returned in the 'power of the Spirit' after the forty days. To go from being led by the Spirit to living in the power of the Spirit... that's something I want, want more of, and to be honest, need right now.
The invitation for our community is to fast for one 24-hour period each week (we're doing Thursdays), and during that time to pursue God through worship, scripture, and specifically prayer for the lost. There's a phrase thrown around - 'third space' - the space you frequent other than your home and your church. It is likely your work or school, for me it's the gym - Fitness Connection in Indian Trail to be exact. On Thursdays during Lent, I'll be fasting for 24 hours, and when I would be eating, I will choose to pray for that space, and the people there, and that my time there is less about me staying in shape (I did just turn 40!) and more about the way God is calling me to be a light, an aroma, an ambassador, and many other Biblical descriptors of a disciple of Jesus.
The second invitation is to abstain from one or more things for forty days, beginning on February 20th. It'll make the time exactly forty days - some who observe from Ash Wednesday until Easter are given a 'break' from their abstentions on Sundays. I've found that when I break from what I'm giving up, it makes it harder to keep abstaining the other six days. So we're doing forty days, starting 2/20. Maybe it's desserts, or caffeine; perhaps it's social media or TV; some have even abstained from shopping online or from sleep, committing that extra hour towards worship, those extra funds towards generosity.
The third (and last) invitation is to sabbath for one 24-hour period. Sabbath is an enigma for many today. We don't want to be like the 7th Day Adventists and their apparent legalistic observing of it (the term is 'strict Sabbatarian' for what it's worth). But we also likely don't sabbath, even though we are convinced the ten commandments should be allowed to be posted in court rooms across our country (it is the fourth of the ten, btw). The invitation in Sabbath is rooted in the two deliveries of the commandments, found in Exodus 20v11 and Deuteronomy 5v15 - the first being to 'make it holy' because God rested, and He's holy; the second being to 'make it fun' because God freed the Israelites from slavery - a 24 hour, 7 day a week existence based on producing - so now don't produce, and take a day of fun! More simply - pray and play. Make it holy, make it fun.
I'm glad I saw it coming and planned it out better than in years prior, as I preached on the topic on February 11th, giving myself and our community nine-ten days to prepare. To invite the Holy Spirit to lead us into this period, like He led Jesus into the wilderness. To ask God 'what are you asking me to deny of myself' for this period, just like Jesus commands those who want to be His disciples to 'deny themselves' (Matthew 16v24).
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