Lent: Preparing for Easter

Is It Easter Yet?

Matthew 16: 24-25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

I love Easter. I love the daffodils. I love the colorful eggs. I love seeing littles in their fancy Easter best on Sunday morning. And the chocolate. I especially love the chocolate. But what I love most of all is the reason we celebrate……Jesus resurrected. Sin forgiven, hope restored, redemption and new life offered to all.

Most years Easter catches me off guard. It sneaks up, comes and goes quickly, and I feel like I missed it. I find it difficult to capture and hold on to the meaning of the season. Which is why learning about preparing myself for Easter through Lent has become so significant to me.

Lent, the six week period leading up to Easter, is about resetting my attention. It gives me an opportunity to examine what’s really going on with my soul, helps me reorient my daily life around Jesus, and ultimately helps me return to God with any parts of me that may have drifted. Lent invites me to live differently and lose some of my life - traditionally through prayer, fasting and giving. It’s about giving something up, so I can make more room for Jesus.

This year Lent begins on Wednesday, February 22. So here’s my invitation: let’s live differently in preparation for Easter. You don’t need to change everything. You just need to find one thing that’s meaningful. One thing that interrupts you. One thing that, if you did it consistently for 40 days (not perfectly, but consistently), you might find yourself changed at the other end. You might have more compassion or grace to offer others. You might have a greater sense of God’s presence with you daily. You might be ready to lay down a habit that’s holding you back or a burden you were never meant to carry. You might have a greater understanding of your own individual moment-by-moment need for the love and life only Jesus offers. Imagine all that we might have to celebrate together on Easter Sunday!

We’ve created a simple resource to give you more information about Lent and some ideas of how you might incorporate practices to guide you along the way. I hope you’ll consider joining me.

May God’s peace and presence be with you.

Ginger Morgan