A Soft Spot for Lent

I have a soft spot for Lent. Not only does my church, Calvary Episcopal Church, do Lent like no other with the Lenten Series and Waffle Shop, Lent has been a significant game changer in my life, as I know it was for Jesus, too.

Do you know about Lent? In Christian communities, it’s often a time in which the readings about Jesus living into His ministry are read and discussed. For forty days and nights (the same number that Jesus spent in the wilderness) churches around the world reflect on Jesus’ life as it leads towards the cross and ultimately our salvation at the cross. Too much? Take a step back and let me share a story.

I grew up in a church that followed liturgical seasons. You’re probably familiar with them, too, regardless of your religious practice (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent, etc., etc., etc.). You get it. Each season has a significant focus on the life of Jesus and the Christian faith, and each season includes a series of readings from the Bible so that throughout the year, participants in liturgical services end up hearing a significant account of Jesus’ life as well as readings from the Old Testament (the first part of the Bible) leading up to His life. It’s pretty amazing how in depth the study can be and how much of the Bible is actually read through this practice.

I grew up hearing all of these readings and following cycle after cycle of seasons, year after year, but in my early 30’s, Lent made a significant impact. It was one of those major hill climbs on my spiritual journey. And when I say hill, I mean reaching towards the peak.

I was a youngish wife and mother of two, working hard both professionally and in trying to live out God’s call for me to do good or share my gifts or whatever it was that I still hadn’t totally figured out. Feeling a strong pull towards something different, towards something that might help others, I left my job of eight years, a job with great meaning, a place with beloved colleagues and a ministry in itself. It was not without a lot of prayer that I made this leap of faith towards something new.

It was only weeks into my decision that I started to wonder if I had misunderstood what I felt strongly as a calling. I was confused and hurt. I could not understand how the positive and powerful spiritual pull I had felt had lead to something so painful and difficult. I prayed. I prayed hard. I called upon friends. I asked for help and guidance.

Eventually, a thought settled on me. In my new career, I no longer felt as if I was using my gifts and talents to serve others, something important to me in both my profession and ministry. I decided if I was not using them in my professional work, I would need to make sure I was using them elsewhere.

I called upon a local church to see if I might offer my services. Although my confidence was badly bruised from my current predicament, I knew I had a lot of experience to offer as a communications specialist as well as a lay-leader bible study facilitator. I offered to help facilitate a bible study at their church as well as to help coordinate their communications volunteers. The bible study was to start the Thursday before the first Sunday of Lent and a volunteer organizing meeting would happen a few weeks later.

The readings during that Lent were cathartic. Interestingly enough, they are very similar year to year. As I studied the main gospel lesson with the several women who gathered on Thursdays that Lent, I found myself healing. I found myself strengthening. I realized that just as Jesus was tempted in the desert, I was finding myself tested. I realized that I too had the strength inside me to resist that temptation and that I wasn’t going to put a bushel over my head any longer.

I made a decision to make a change. Interestingly enough, just as I closed the door on the oppression I was experiencing, God opened a window. To this day, it remains one of the most amazing moments of answered prayer in my life. After several weeks of Lenten bible study, being guided to and surviving the wilderness and walking the ministry of Jesus towards Jerusalem, I stood before a group of volunteers wanting to learn more about how they could help share the message of their church. After the gathering, a kind man walked up to me and asked me if I was happy with my current employment. I answered him honestly and said, “no.” The window opened. The job of my dreams awaited me, one I knew would make the difference I was praying for.

When I walked away from the church building that night, I opened the doors to the outdoors and the trumpets of angels were blaring. It was the local train coming through blowing it’s horn, but the timing could not have been more perfect for angels’ trumpets, and it will forever be angels’ trumpets blaring through that night that awaiting me as I walked in a new direction towards light out of darkness.

Ah Lent, it does have a soft spot in my heart. It is not easy. It is challenging, but it is oh so worth it, for Easter and resurrection is coming, my friend. There is always a way out of the darkness. We just have to find the path. We have to be willing to make the study, to open our eyes, our ears, our minds, our hearts to the possibility that there is another way and that God wants to lead us there.

I also want to note that there was great purpose in that trying time before the angels’ trumpets blared. I will forever be thankful for each and every person that crossed my path during that time and the lessons learned from each of them. Without that experience, I would not have been prepared for the new path before me.

I wish you the most blessed and thoughtful Lent. I hope that angels blare their trumpets for you. Just know that you might have to do a little homework to hear them.

In 2014, Lent will begin March 4 and continue through April 17. You don’t have to wait to start attuning your ears, hearts, eyes and minds.

With love and light,

LT