Why I Love Lent!

 I love Lent. I think it is one of my favorite spiritual observances. This season is a period of intentional self-reflection and repentance. Not that these things shouldn't take place daily, but this time is specifically dedicated to cleansing your inner self. Many people love the idea or the hype of fasting from some "thing"  (fried foods, soda, chocolate, alcohol, cursing, etc.) for 40 days, but it's so much more than that. My pastor described this fasting period as a time when "the outward man perishes so the inward man flourishes." The objective is to simply get closer  with  Christ...to be still and listen to His voice and cutting off your worldly desires is one way to achieve this goal. This is a time of forgiveness. A time for a new start.  A time of Grace (my favorite word) and Mercy. My pastor taught from Psalm 51 on Ash Wednesday. In this psalm, David cries out and begs for God to have mercy on him. David acknowledges that repenting means being forgiven. Too often we fail to repent because we don't want to admit that we are wrong, raggedy, and most of all sinful by nature.  My favorite time of day is my God time. My late at night or early in the morning moments of sitting with God. It is in this moment that I am able to offer my entire self to Him, so it is only right that I would absolutely love an entire season set aside just for this purpose. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to "give up for Lent" and I honestly couldn't decide on anything. One- because I am ridiculously indecisive, but also because I couldn't think of anything that is  completely blocking me from hearing God. I am in no way perfect or arrogant in my walk with Christ, but I sort of dealt with this stuff before the new year. I gave up social media for the month of January. I thought that was my biggest distraction at times. I thought about a few other things, but didn't think they would truly do anything in the area of drawing me closer to God. So instead of giving something up, I decided that I would simply commit to Christ even more and I've been doing just that. During this Lenten season, I am learning that you are not defined by your sin. I am learning to love myself more than I ever have before. I am learning to focus wholeheartedly on Christ. I am learning to not accept any old thing because I deserve so much more. Finally, I am learning to be still and listen to His voice. It is in my quiet place when I am most open and obedient that God makes His presence known. I thank God for this season. It is in this season that we prepare ourselves for the Resurrection.