Lent & Love

Holy Cow!  It’s Lent again!  The time of year when people pick up on resolutions which they let slide in January, forego certain indulgences and increase spiritual disciplines to help prepare themselves for the celebration of Easter.  Over the last week, my social media feeds have been buzzing about Lent.  From clergy friends informing the twitterverse that they will be preaching on Ash Wednesday, to people declaring that they will be MIA on Facebook until Easter.  My personal favorite was my cousin’s Facebook post “I am giving up lent for Lent.”

We are called to observe a holy lent and contemplate where our heart and treasure lie.  Before we go sauntering off into our twenty-first century wilderness for forty days to get a little closer to Jesus, have we really thought about why we do what we do during Lent?  Sometimes we have a knee-jerk reaction and sometimes not. Just last night, someone asked me what this “Ash Wednesday and Lent thing is all about?”   My Ash Wednesday message to you today is that YOU ARE LOVED.  Lent sets the stage for this amazing love story of the cross that dates back long before we were born. 

I was in church Sunday and the priest said my message is simply this “You are loved.”  There on the tail end of Epiphany, I had an “epiphany”!  YOU ARE LOVED!  As we start this season of penitence, let’s do all that we do in love.  Whether you’re giving up chocolate, soft drinks, profanity or alcohol, let love be your motivation.  You are the beloved of God, and his change agents for peace and justice in the world.  I challenge you during this Lenten season to not only go deeper in faith, prayer and perseverance, but go deeper in love.  After all, love is the reason that we are all here today. 

Faithfully,
Karr