More and Less
If you want more of Jesus this Lent season, what do you need less of?
I grew up attending Catholic schools, competing with my fellow uniformed students to give up something for Lent that seemed holy but wouldn’t be too hard. One boy had the brilliant idea to give up daily baths. Once I gave up licorice. It was not a sacrifice like chocolate would have been.
Now, Lent means so much more to me than giving up candy. It is a time to recalibrate, to expose where I’ve gone after lesser things (I’m such a distraction magnet) and find more space for Jesus.
Ecclesiastes 3 invites me to consider what season I’m in and what matters most.
"He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP
What do you need less of to find more of Jesus?
Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, ushers in the 40 days of the Lenten season (with Sundays off to celebrate the reality of our Resurrected Lord) culminating in the Church’s most hope-filled day of the year—Easter (April 5). Forty symbolizes the 40 years of exile wandering of the Israelites and 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. Lent can be a powerful season, no matter what your church background, if you approach it freshly, humbly, and honestly. Think of it as a time to:
Repent What’s become more important than Jesus Christ? What have you become too dependent on to make it through your days?
Return It’s not just a boot camp to deny yourself but a turning to Jesus in your need and returning to the core of how He has formed you and wants to use you.
Refocus The world invites you to distract yourself to death. Where do you need to focus as you look forward to Easter?
Renew It’s been our tradition at InSpero to encourage everyone (not just artists) to create during this season. How can you push back the darkness through your offering of beauty? It can be painting or poetry or music, being fully present with people, writing personal letters of encouragement, baking bread, or noticing the world around you. Take Mary Oliver’s advice:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Consider doing a lectio divina (slower contemplative reading of Scripture) of Ecclesiastes 3:1-15.
Click here for a handout that explains how to do a lectio divina, gives the passage in three versions, and asks a few follow-up questions.
Here are a few resources to help you with a daily devotional focus on Lent and Easter:
The Good of Giving Up by Aaron Damiani
Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal by Esau McCaulley
Lent for Everyone by N.T. Wright
Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter
Living with the Ache, daily Lent email devotions by Kate Bowler, Substack @katecbowler
The Art of Lent: A Painting a Day from Ash Wednesday to Easter by Sister Wendy Beckett
Show Me the Way Daily Lenten Readings by Henri Nouwen
A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent by Christine Valters Paintner
Pause: Spending Lent with the Psalms by Elizabeth F. Caldwell
Habits of the Way with John Mark Comer, Trinity Forum podcast