Lent God Your Heart & Soul
Lent begins Wednesday and continues for 46 days until Saturday, the 11th of April.
The season of Lent leads up to Easter. For many, it is a time to give up something like candy or smoking. Lent owes much of its spirit to the forty days Jesus spent in the desert preparing for his ministry. Of course this is where He was tested. The Jewish people thought of the desert as the home of demons, especially that part of the desert where winds howled around tall, jagged rock.
Ever spend a night in a place like that? Dark and threatening shapes, unearthly wailing of wind, alone with your thoughts, nothing and no one else. Here Jesus was confronted by the enemy and offered the opportunity to do what the enemy had done and reject God. He could anoint Himself king and become the wrong kind of messiah. Jesus rejected each possibility and basically said, “My heart and soul belong to My Father.”
My heart and soul belong to My Father.
That’s what Lent is all about. For that matter that’s what the other 319 days of this year are all about as well.
My wife heard a good friend last week explain how her priest was encouraging his church to focus not on giving something up for Lent but to instead focus on giving of themselves for Lent. I like that idea. You might volunteer at a Habitat for Humanity project (our sixth one here at Altamesa began last week) or help out at a food pantry. You could spend an evening tutoring kids or maybe gather some friends and do odd jobs for a widow.
That’s all good. And so is giving up candy or cigarettes. Whatever helps these next 46 days draw you closer to God is a good thing. If Giving Up or Giving Of during Lent helps you give your heart and soul then go for it.
Easter’s coming. And so is the rest of your life.
posted by Danny Sims | 9:38 AM 
