LENT. . . . .AGAIN

Dear Friends,

It's that time again!  Forty days of being quieter, maybe giving up chocolate, going to church on Wednesday nights—in this day and age of change and new, why do we keep doing the same old thing?

"Faith is about doing.  You are how you act, not just how you believe" (from "Have A Little Faith" by Mitch Albom, page 44).  With words we can say we want to turn back to God, have a deeper relationship.  And we can believe it in our hearts.  But we also have to do it to make it real.

Spending time in prayer, practicing discipline, doing works or charity, hearing God's word in worship—this is the doing of Lent.  This is what makes it real for us and truly changes our hearts, turns us back to God, brings us to the new life of the spring of Easter.

And besides making it real, ritual does another important thing.  "My grandparents did these things.  My parents too.  If I take the pattern and throw it out, what does that say about their lives?  Or mine?  From generation to generation, these rituals are how we remain connected" (from "Have A Little Faith" by Mitch Albom, page 45).

The rituals of Lent keep us connected with family, with the saints of ages past, with our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Praying as our Lord did, giving up something as the Christians in the Middle Ages did, doing works of charity as your grandparents did, sitting in worship beside parents, aunts, uncles, siblings—it all keeps us connected to one another as the people of God who always live in the hope of new life.

Come be part of Lent. . .again.

Yours in Christ, Pastor Tricia