When looking at the calendar, it is still winter, in-fact we are still getting snow here in Michigan, but looking at the Church calendar, it is spring time, well to put it better a spiritual spring time. We are to go in to Lent, to remove ourselves from the everyday world. And to enter the spiritual word, or better yet, to grow close to God in all we do, and on Easter, like Jesus, we too are to enter the world anew. What a glorious thing to strive for, to be born fresh, to start our new life.
Like spring time, when the flowers start to bloom and the birds return to sing their happy songs, we to are to bloom, and to sing out happy song, the great Alleluia… To proclaim to the world our new and improved us.
But really how many of us do this? Who really feels like they have been reborn and grown closer to God? It’s a hard thing to do, I mean God is so… well Godly and we are so, well ungodly, that we sometimes feel that we can not even begin to grow in our faith.
Maybe God is just asking to much, I mean we all have lives to live, and with rushing here and there, who really has time to make sure they are not eating meat, and I already go to church on Sundays, and I really don’t have time for that. So to expect me to attend an extra service here and there, well who has the time? God really can’t expect me to give up my free time to sit at church, can He?
Yes He can, and yes he does, but it’s much more then that.
God expects us to sacrifice, not just during lent, but all our life. Sacrificing does not mean giving up pop, or going to extra mass services for 40 days, sacrificing means changing your life, for the better. Can attending an extra mass change my life, can giving up pop change my life? It can if you allow it to. Nothing comes for free, we must work at what ever we wish to obtain, whether a closer relationship with God, or your child. It’s all work! And hard work it is.
So this lent don’t just look at what to give up, but rather look at what you wish to gain. Lent is not about missing, but rather it’s about gaining. Gaining a new understand of who you are, and new understanding of who God is. And, if you’re lucky, you will see that because of your suffering in lent, you have a new understanding of you and your relationship with God…
Now you can sing Alleluia, and really mean it!
God Bless & Happy Lent
Paul
Filed under: Lent, easter, faith | Tagged: God, Lent. Easter, Relationship, suffering
