A Walk Through Lent

Lent begins today. I have never really participated in Lent, but as I started researching and praying through what these 40 days leading us up to Easter could look like, I became intrigued. Easter can too easily become just another holiday where we go to church with our extended family and come home to celebrate and enjoy some good food together. I love that part too and wouldn’t want to miss that. But I felt God pushing me deeper, and I encourage you to pray about it as well.

Maybe you haven’t thought much about Lent in the past, or you have written it off as something ritualistic or forced. There is nothing about it in the Bible, and it is nothing required or even suggested. But I have always prayed for God to prepare my heart for significant events. Biblically, there are times of preparation prior to a significant event as well. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before crossing over to the Promised Land. Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days before beginning his ministry. 

Sometimes, the wilderness can be harsh. It can be a time of questioning, seeking, and removing things that keep us from seeing God clearly. Traditionally, people give up something for Lent, but this year, I am going to use this time for God to show me what I need to give up or add in my life and in my relationship with Him. 

I see Lent as our wilderness – a time of preparation, a time of approaching, a time of holy anticipation, a time of wandering through truth as you move toward the cross. 

HE USES OUR WANDERINGS

This past summer, our family was able to enjoy a wonderful, peaceful, much-needed family vacation at the lake. Those precious times don’t happen as frequently anymore as our teenage girls push out into independence, so I treasure them all the more. 

The whole week was full of laughter that drew us closer and memories that made my heart swell. But the last night, as we prepared to leave in the morning, harsh words erupted between my daughter and I over attitudes and misunderstandings. Exhaustion and hurt feelings threatened to leave a bad taste in our mouths and end this beautiful week on a bad note.

She took off on her bicycle, desiring to put space between her and me – the source of the conflict, in her eyes. I instantly pleaded with God not to let this vacation be remembered by this solitary contentious event. “Please, Lord, I don’t know how, but somehow, allow this time to end in a positive way. Let us be able to look back on this time with laughter and good memories.”

Our good God had already begun working. As the remaining light was being pushed out of the day, I could feel the panic rise up within me. My phone rings, and my daughter’s very shaky voice informs me she is lost and alone on a gravel road with no idea how to get back to the cabin.

I take a deep breath and push down my own shaky voice as I calmly ask her to describe her surroundings. Fields. No lights. She is literally in the middle of nowhere, and all she has is her flip phone. I tenderly advise her to get to an intersection where she can find out a street name. 

I hear sobbing on the other end as her tired legs walk her bike to the next intersection while she walks among swarms of mosquitoes. “You’ll be okay, sweet girl, just keep walking.” My voice may have been calm, but my heart was racing as I thought of all the potential threats to my precious daughter. 

Can’t you just hear God’s voice in your own story telling you,

“You’ll be okay, sweet girl, just keep walking.”

Her daddy and I were already at the end of the driveway and headed for her as she called out her address. The GPS said she was almost 8 miles from us, and those miles between us were painstaking as I thought of her alone on that dark, gravel road. 

When we finally got to her, we jumped out of the truck and sandwiched her between us as she sobbed even harder in relief. On the way back to the cabin, she showed us her skin that was swollen with mountains of mosquito bites. We spent the rest of the evening, all of us squeezed on the cozy, little couch, laughing at how ridiculous this final evening ended up being, and enjoying a closeness that had been lacking for a long time.

Can you just imagine how God feels as we take off in the opposite direction – hurt and confused – how He desperately longs to bring us home and hold us? But He doesn’t force us to come back. He allows us to wrestle and wander. He gives us freedom to ask questions and arrive at truth in our own way, at our own time. He takes our wanderings and uses them to open up opportunities to bring us home; to teach us and love us in new ways. There is a strong, sweet closeness when you are being brought home after being lost.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS

Let Easter be your destination through this season of wandering through truth. Let Easter bring you to the same sweet closeness to Jesus. Use this wilderness season, this 40 days, to ask and wrestle and arrive at Truth. Sometimes I feel we don’t take enough time to wrestle and seek answers to those questions that leave us unsettled. We hesitate to dive into these parts of Jesus that leave us uncertain or uncomfortable, as if really confronting them and wrestling through them would turn us away or show that we aren’t “Christian enough.”

Jesus didn’t feel that way. He was constantly asking questions – questions that make us wrestle. Questions that sometimes make us feel like we ate some bad food the night before. Questions that insist that we wander through truth to find relief. The Gospels record over 300 questions Jesus asked (although many are repeated in the re-telling of the parables). Jesus understood that we learn best as Truth wrestles with our misconceptions. 

When people asked Jesus a question, He would often answer the question with a question. This is a quality my husband has adopted, so I am well aware how irritating this can be. (And I’m sure you can just imagine how thrilled our teenage daughters are about it!) I’m certain this irritated those asking Jesus for answers as well. It would be much easier for Jesus to answer the question. But, as my husband knows, sometimes answering a question triggers a debate. Jesus did not come to debate. He came to change hearts and set people free. He knew the best way to do that was to guide them to the truth, even if it was unsettling at first.

CREATING A PEARL OF TRUTH

Jesus wasn’t afraid to ask questions that caused irritation because He knew the result had the potential to be transformed into something beautiful, if they allowed it. This is similar to the creation of a pearl. A grain of sand or a parasite gets inside the oyster and irritates the tissue. The oyster covers it with layer after layer of the same material used to create its shell as a defense mechanism in order to protect itself. This response to irritation eventually produces the pearl.

Jesus knew his questions would irritate his audience, but without them wrestling through questions that challenged them and their own ideas, they wouldn’t produce a pearl of truth.

Join me as we wander through the wilderness this Lent season. Write down questions you have for Jesus. Ask them. Listen and consider what questions He might ask you in response. Then wrestle. Wrestle through those irritations and frustrations all the way to the cross and the empty tomb. Listen and watch with holy anticipation as He uses those irritations to produce a pearl of truth.
I pray these days will bring a fresh fascination with your Lord and you are able to cling to Him like you’ve been brought home after being lost.