As Lent starts, many of us have had conversations about what we are giving up during this season. I want to challenge your perspective on this topic. You may be thinking to yourself right now, how can she do this? Here’s how.
When I think about Lent, I don’t think about what I am giving up. I think about what God gave up for us. How can I honor God’s sacrifice during this season and throughout the year?
During my spiritual journey in the last six years, I have found myself numerous times saying to God, “When I let go of my earthly feelings and situations I can’t control, you fill me with your love, grace, peace, and mercy.” My perspective of the world changes, and my perspective of God’s word, a.k.a. the Bible, changes and grows deeper in my soul.
During my time of deep grief over my dad going to Heaven, God gave me a piece of scripture that took my breath away like it never had before, and I read it almost every day. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.” (John 3:16 CEB)
God’s sacrifice… He gave this world his only son. His son walked this earth, died for our sins, came back and showed us that he conquered death and then gave us the Holy Spirit that dwells in our souls. We are forever connected! Part of Heaven stayed here on earth after the son went back to Heaven to be with our Heavenly Father. When my dad went to Heaven, part of me went with him. Love has no boundaries. God has no boundaries.
When I look at the last part of this scripture, “Everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life,” I am reminded of my dad and his spiritual journey. Before my dad went to Heaven, we would talk about my time at Praise and Worship and how I was finding healing from traumas that I carried with me for so many years. I learned how to forgive those that hurt me, and I was constantly learning who I am in God’s eyes (I’m still learning, too). My dad was so deeply moved by my experiences, that he started exploring the Bible and his own journey with God. He shared that after many decades he found God again. We didn’t know that just a short time later that his eternal life would start, but I know where he is because of what his final year spiritually looked like.
So, with a deeply moving scripture and changed perspective of Lent, how can we honor God’s sacrifice? Well, we can share God’s love with others. A small act of kindness goes further than we could ever possibly imagine. We can take our earthly feelings and situations we can’t control and give them to God to change into things that he wants for us. I think of it as an exchange program: when I surrender my anger, fear, anxiety, and grief to God, he provides me with mercy, peace, joy and love.
God made many sacrifices to show us that he loves us unconditionally. What better way to honor those sacrifices than to do the same thing for our loved ones and strangers we never met before?
My goal when Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter get here is to have a conversation with God and say, “I know you better today than I did on Ash Wednesday. When I look in the mirror, I see more of you than myself. I performed acts of kindness that changed someone’s day or life for the better.”
I say this prayer for myself and for you, too. We are never alone in our journeys. God is always present even when we don’t see, hear, or feel him and our loved ones are there, too.
May you and your family have a blessed Lenten season and Easter.