Lent–I love it.

I grew up in a church that recognized the season of Lent. (If you are not familiar with Lent – here is a great blog about it http://blog.worldvisionacts.org/2012/02/a-revolutionary-lent/) But in my current church, Lent is mainly unknown as a season, yet I still recognize it and participate in some of the traditions.

Lent (in a nutshell) marks the 40 days leading up to Easter. It is a season marked with tradition and ritual – in which many people choose to give up something (a type of fasting if you will). This concept of fasting started as a way to sacrifice in order to honor God. Nowadays, it seems more like a tradition we keep in order to better ourselves – taking God almost completely out of the equation.

I love Lent. I love Easter. For so many reasons. There is the obvious one, which is that Easter marks the day that Jesus rose from the grave which means He was an acceptable sacrifice once for all for the forgiveness of sins making you and I able to be reconciled to our Heavenly Father and justified before His judgment.

But the not so obvious reasons (unless you know me well) are two-fold. First, I enjoy a time that offers the opportunity to grow spiritually. These 40 days of Lent are a highly concentrated Spiritual growth opportunity , that if approached correctly, can lead to a permanent change in our Spiritual journey and walk with God.  I love it!

I also love Lent because it marks my journey to salvation. One particular lent as a teenager I got involved in a Youth group. The youth group encouraged us to sacrifice something that would allow us to get closer to God. Whatever we gave up had to be replaced with God somehow. I took part in the challenge, which marked its’ end with a Youth Lock-In. At the lock-in, each of us got a one or two-hour shift to be completely alone in the sanctuary. My shift was from 1-3am. I sat in the dimly lit sanctuary and decided to pull out a Bible and read the Easter story in each Gospel.

I am sure that the Holy Spirit had been preparing my heart for this moment my entire life, but He got an especially softened heart to work with during this particular Lent, and I believe that as a result of the extra preparation that the Holy Spirit was able to do in my softened heart that I was ready at that moment in the sanctuary to respond to the salvation that Christ offered.

I was saved at a Youth lock-in, during Lent, right before Easter. I love Lent.

Tomorrow marks day one of this 40 Day journey that I love so much and I have something special planned. I will share what that is in my next post (which will be posted later today in case you want to take this journey with me)!