Love, Life & Lent

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” – Jesus

There’s a lot going on these days to try and pay attention to.

First off, it’s February and our ‘missional year at a glance’ theme for the month is love. Even after Valentine’s Day, it’s still the time of year when we go the extra mile to show that special someone, a partner, a family member, a dear friend, that we love them. Valentine’s Day is fun to be both on the giving as well as the receiving side of things. It also reminds me of how much I am loved by God. It’s hard to fathom that the Creator of the universe knows me by name and loves me as though I am His very own child. That’s so hard to get my head around, especially at times when I don’t even love myself all that much.

Which leads me to the second thing; life. As I said earlier, we are busy people. There’s so much going on and it’s hard to take the time needed to pay attention to it all. We’re juggling a lot of balls. Trying to maintain a healthy work/life balance, managing expectations at work and home, prioritizing our work so we can be as effective and efficient as possible while remaining compassionate and connected to our ‘clients’. There are budgets and work plans and strategies and agendas and meetings and paperwork and the list goes on. There’s the gym and eating right and going for walks and taking time for devotions and spending time with kids and taking ‘me’ time to relax and/or have some fun. It’s too much. The balls get dropped all the time and we beat ourselves up for it.

Which brings me to the third and final thing; lent. Valentine’s Day was also Ash Wednesday, putting us less than a week into this 40-ish day season leading up to Easter. We experience the days lengthening (lent), we slowly feel the springtime coming and we are reminded of the hope that awaits us. We feel the weight, the heaviness, of winter slowly lifting off. During this time, we focus on a thing or two that may be getting in the way of our closeness to God. Some choose to give things up like coffee, chocolate, TV, Facebook, etc., while others add things like prayer, scripture and silence. Lent can bring a person closer to God, which can lead to feeling God’s love more deeply, which can lead to loving yourself more and beating yourself up less.

That’s my hope and prayer for you (and me) this season. God loves us for who we are and not for what we do. So it just may be worth prioritizing lent as it can positively affect everything else in your life. God has a way of doing that!

Let’s try and be mindful of that truth this Lenten season as we continue striving to be ‘The Hand of God in the Heart of the City.’

Peace,
Dion