The movie "Frozen" is helping me prepare for Lent. I'd like to help you prepare today. Okay, really just the chorus to the mega popular song is helpful to me (angie and I went on a post-Oscars date last night to finally see the movie - it was good, but not 'highest grossing Disney animated film of all time' good IMHO). To kickoff Lent at Lake Forest Church -Huntersville we will hold 4 Ash Wednesday services on Wed. March 5th, starting at 4,5,6, & 7pm. In partnership with Church of the Good Shepherd Anglican.
There are a number of Lenten practices that have proved helpful to my walk with Christ as I've learned and participated in this ancient Christian tradition for a number of years now. Lent is simply a period of 40 days leading up to Easter, in which many Christians choose to prepare to celebrate the resurrection through a season of intentional repentance, prayer, fasting and good deeds done in the name of Jesus. (If you search Lent on my blog's front page, you'll find entries of mine with a more full description of Lent and its history).
The most helpful practices for me have been putting something off and putting something on, detachment and attachment, fasting from one good in order to feast more on another good. This is in keeping with the New Testament's exhortations to 'put on Christ' and all that belongs to his identity and way of life, and to 'put off' the old self' and its sin, folly and even simple things (not necessarily sins) that hinder the life of Christ emerging more fully in us. I follow these practices during Lent to pursue Christ more fully, and to do so in unity of practice with most Christians for over 1,500 years and today.
So as the queen in 'Frozen' sang "Let it go, let it go!" last night in the Birkdale theatre, I was considering, "Lord, do I feel called to let go of, or give up something for Lent this year?" Last year I didn't. I never had clarity about something particular to fast from, and decided to not choose something just for the sake of it. It helped me to ensure I'm not rehearsing the middle ages and turning Lent into a law that I must measure up to or a good work that makes me more pleasing to God. Its simply a spiritual practice, a spiritual discipline, another practical tool in the toolshed for cooperating with the Holy Spirit to bring greater Jesus-like order to my garden. Maybe this year some of you need to fast from fasting during Lent?
So I'm going to give up snacks. Each time I start to make a move to the pantry between meals or after dinner (multiple times per minute), I will have constructed a sentence prayer that I breathe out, to use my desire for savory satisfaction in the moment to raise my sights to higher satisfaction in the cross and resurrection and person of Jesus Christ. I haven't yet written that sentence or chosen a sentence in Scripture. I still don't know what good deed or practice I will 'put on' during this season. I'm assuming that at some point during the 4 Ash Wednesday services I am co-leading with the pastor of Good Shepherd Anglican Church, it will come clear to me - I will have 4 hours to figure that out!
In closing today, I offer you my friend and mentor Leighton Ford's helpful (and crazy-insightful) reflection on Lent this year, published in the Charlotte Observer on March 1:
A LENTEN TRAPEZE
Years ago the Swiss therapist and spiritual guide Paul Tournier caught my attention with a dramatic image comparing life to a trapeze performance in a circus.
The trapeze artist grasps the bar of a swing, launches out, swings back and forth, higher and higher, until at the farthest point he or she lets go, trusting their partner to swing out at just the right time to reach out, clasp arms, and swing them to safety on the other side.
Just imagining such a moment makes my stomach clutch, and my breath catch! It also makes me realize how apt Tournier’s image is for this Lenten season, a time to let go, and reach out.
The Bible is filled with stories of this risky movement. Abraham is called to leave the security of his ancestral home, and to go out by faith to a land he did not know. The disciples of Jesus leave the boats and livelihood and families, saying “We have left all to follow you.”
Jesus himself said, “I have power to lay my life down, and to take it up again.” Notice how his letting go is tied to the certainty of resurrection.
Paul’s sees himself not as a trapeze performer but a runner. “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Can you picture yourself, this Lenten season, as the trapeze artist or the runner, “letting go, and reaching out”?
The past year was for me in many ways a year of loss: young leaders I have mentored facing life-threatening illnesses; my brother-in-law Billy reaching his 95th birthday but growing weaker; the traumatic death of my dog Wrangler, my close companion for nine years.
“I feel that everything is going away,” I told a friend.” She surprised me by asking, “What time does God’s store close?”
I thought back to my parents’ jewelry store, which closed at 6pm every day except weekends. Then I realized that God’s store does not close! His grace is available 24/7 for every letting go, and every reaching out.
As I look back over my life I remember painful partings, letting go of “attachments” which had seemed absolutely vital, even wondering whether life would be whole again. But God was calling through loss to gain, letting go of the past to enter into God’s future.
Each of us has certain “attachments”, habits or people, or even addictions or possessions which we clutch for security. And each of us is again and again called to “detachment” in order to trust God more.
I suggest two questions to ask as you embark on your Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday next week.
What do I need to let go? What unfinished business is there that is holding you back – of hurt, or dreams, or failure, or the normal patterns of the last year? Try holding out your hands, visualize placing those concerns in them, then turn them over and open them, releasing them into God’s care.
To what do I need to reach out? To what new adventure or challenge may God be calling you? Turn your hands upward, open them and lift them, and receive at least a token of God’s grace.
As the Quaker Thomas Kelly wrote,
(God) plucks the world out of our hearts, loosening the chains of attachment. And (God) hurls the world into our hearts, where we and (God) together carry it in infinitely tender love.
So this Lent – let go – reach out – trust God.
Leighton Ford
(From Charlotte Observer column March 1)
