Make a Plan for Lent
Sometimes spiritual growth happens best with a little bit of preparation, and Lent can be a rich season of spiritual growth. It helps to be reminded a few days before Ash Wednesday that the season is upon us so that each of us can ask some important questions: Where am I most spiritually hungry? Where have I been getting lost in excess? How have my unseen patterns of life had a negative impact on other children of God?
Lent is a time of spiritual disciplines rather than systemic changes, though one can of course lead to another. I find it’s helpful to start small, and to let those small things connect us to a bigger story. Will you give something up this Lent, be it coffee or dessert or Netflix or any other of life’s treats? Will you take on a new practice for a season, be that centering prayer or the daily office or journaling? Will you connect with the wider story of peace and justice, whether reading a book like The 1619 Project or committing to recycle or upcycle items you own?
The gift of this season is one of growth through awareness, of letting go the temporal things that lay claim to our hearts so that we can be made free to walk with Jesus for the rest of our lives.