Lent and love…not concepts that we often think of together, but they’ve been coming together more closely for me lately. Maybe it is simply that I am a little more aware during this Lenten season and the connection seems true and right.

The other day I was holding Madeleine and she was giggling and laughing, and I would laugh….and she would laugh in response. Her eyes lit up and she laughed with them as well as her little chortling laugh-out-loud delight. It is impossible to convey the emotions of parents in these moments. There was delight that welled up within me just in seeing her delight.

There is love that is awakened in us as parents that is unlike anything else. And it is returned in our infants especially. They delight in us.

Anna, one of my favorite bloggers, wrote about her experience as a new mom and this awareness. I really liked this:

They say that becoming a parent changes everything, but what I think those people missed when they said that was the fact that being a parent changes you profoundly. It doesn’t just shake up your life (it does) or cause you realize that sleep is over-rated (it’s not, but you really can function on far less than you think!), but if you listen to your baby, they will explain love to you in ways that you haven’t known since you were a baby.

She’s right. It disarms you. Even if you are not a parent…if you are around little ones you can see that they love unabashedly and without any fear. It is wonderful.

What does this have to do with Lent? Well, it has to do with what we are to be thinking on.

Jesus went to the desert to face temptations and to be tested as He entered His ministry. He already knew He was taking the first steps to the cross. He knew where the road was going to lead and He knew what was required of Him to bring about our salvation.

But He loved us.

Unabashedly and without fear and without insecurity and without all the baggage we bring.

I know that our attempts at Lenten fasting may seem silly. Some seem sober and respectable. Still…it is just us, attempting to do something to awaken our spiritual eyes to look differently at the way we live and who we are. That is all on our side…we’re trying to do something. And that smacks against what this journey of Jesus is all about….His grace for us.

So, today I’m dwelling on this meeting of Lent and Love. I have already said that I do not think giving up anything will impress God and shouldn’t be done with that intent. But, I do think that He delights in our desire to please Him and to know Him.

Facebook. Thin Mint cookies. TV. Soda. Luxuries. Meat.

Giggle. Laugh. Bat your eyes. Respond to your Father with delight and desire to engage and know. And I believe He delights in us.

“1 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

Because Lent is about preparing ourselves to experience Good Friday and Easter…about thinking on Jesus’ journey in the wilderness…it is sober. I don’t want to make it less than what it should be. Still, I think at it’s core it is about love.   Huffington Post is doing a series on Lent, and this quotation from one of the first articles was part of this thinking for me:

“Lent is not 40 days of misery to be forgotten with the first sip of that illicit latte. It’s our preparation for the Resurrection; our chance to grow spiritually before we once again proclaim that the love of Christ overcame even death.”

Don’t be distracted by the details and miss the whole picture. Delight in God in this season. Even in sobriety and with sacrifice…delight that it is the love of Christ that overcame death. For God so loved the world….

I read an article awhile back on Art House America where the author talked about posting a realistic view of her life. She had begun posting about the messiness in Messy Mondays, and the article I read explained what this was about. She talked about “mom blogs” and how often we try to just present what is the best of us…and that is natural and not altogether a bad thing when blogging. Still…

“In turn, other mothers, regular mothers, tired mothers, new mothers, mothers with sick kids or stressful jobs or people like me who have a very, very low capacity for stress are left discontent, disheartened and wondering what mistake we must be making that our cups aren’t overflowing with these lovely moments. What my cup overflows with is coffee…that I’ve stuck in the microwave 3786493 times because I’m freaking EXHAUSTED and I keep forgetting that it’s in there.”

So, she posted pictures of the messy and the beautiful. Because that is what life is, right? It is messy and beautiful in turn.  I could post a picture right now of my kitchen, but honestly, I just don’t have the desire. Not that I don’t want you to see it…I don’t have the desire to get the camera, take the picture, plug in my external drive I use for pictures and upload the picture and then get it onto this page.

Yep, far too much work for today.

What does this have to do with my current thoughts on Lent?

Well. Everything.

I don’t do anything perfectly. I sure don’t keep the house up perfectly…although I am much better than I used to be.  I don’t keep up with laundry perfectly or cook the best meals all the time or spend my time wisely.  And often on Mondays I am, frankly, lazy.

I’ve spent the whole morning doing nothing…other than playing with the amazing and wonderful Madeleine. She’s been asleep for the last hour and half, though, and I’ve not used that time wisely. I’ve wasted my time and not payed attention.

I don’t like when I do that….but….it happens.

We all get lazy. We all have our moments when our attention is on something it shouldn’t be, and we all get frustrated with ourselves. Even during Lent. Even when we’ve purposed in our hearts that this will be the season we will draw close to God and seek Him and be diligent.

We’ve rolled up our sleeves and gotten about the business of being serious. And, well, if you’re like me, you’ve stumbled.

With that said…I’m now off to tidy and do laundry and hopefully work out and get a few things done. And I hope that my attention will be brought back into line. I hope that the wonder that there was an Incarnation will arrest my attention today. I hope that the reality that God walked in the desert and faced temptations will astound me today. I hope that the reality of Good Friday will shock me today.

And that the knowledge that a Living God who loves me. Me. You. Will bring me alive again. Even on Messy Mondays filled with the reality of dirty dishes and laziness.

So today is the first Sunday of Lent.  Most of the churches I have participated in do not follow the church calendar and do not follow the liturgy for Lent. There are a variety of reasons, but I do think we miss things when we do not know the church year. We come to Good Friday and sometimes feel like we have to scramble to bring ourselves into a sober mindset to be able to think on the suffering of Jesus on that day.  Many churches do not have Good Friday services either. So we come to Easter and welcome a different type of service and enjoy the songs…but we come to the place of praise and celebration without completely coming through the time of sobriety and contemplation….the celebration is much richer if we have spent the time of Lent preparing for Easter.

So, today…I’ve included a few links that offer some readings and the liturgy for the first Sunday in Lent. That is all below, under the “Links”

It’s been a long few days for me since Ash Wednesday. It is funny how when we try to do something different in our spiritual walk there seems to be a heightened emotional response. Maybe it is in the expectation that something should happen because, after all, we are paying attention. I have tried to guard myself against having expectations in this season, but being human, that’s a little tough.

The other day, Thursday, I was standing in the hall at the boys’ school getting ready to return to the car for dismissal. I was coming down the hall and a few of the teachers were coming from the other direction. One was holding a little boy, 18 months old, and he was completely limp. Another was shouting that he was not breathing and for someone to call 911. A friend who is a teacher in the preschool went down the hall and took the little boy. She told me later that his eyes were fixed and dialated and he was blue. She performed CPR and was able to resuscitate him and the ambulance arrived quickly. He was taken to the hospital and is doing well.
It was highly emotional. My friend who did the CPR was overcome with emotion. She had saved a little boys’ life. God was gracious. All of us in the hallway had been praying and were so relieved. He was too young…but he is still marked by mortality and I know of a dozen babies and little ones struggling for their life even at this moment.  We are all dust.

At midnight Saturday morning my Uncle Barry breathed his last. There was no scramble to resuscitate him, there was no CPR. There was longing instead for him to be taken home, to leave behind the destroying forces of Alzheimer’s and the body that was ready to return to dust. There was longing for him to put on his eternal body…to be made whole and for the family to be able to release him to this peace and promise.  He has returned to the dust.

Our mortality surprises us sometimes. In the abrupt stopping of breath in an infant we are stunned. In the last breath given of the older we are relieved sometimes…and yet we still mourn.  We are weighted by this brokenness.
Jesus knows death. He knows it intimately, and yet he has conquered this greatest foe.  Still, it didn’t happen as a surprise to Him. He was prepared.

The journey to the wilderness. The night in Gethsemane. The knowledge of what was His purpose…He knew that He *must* suffer for us.  This time before Easter, this time leading up to Good Friday we set aside frivolity for a little season so that we can enter in in some way to Jesus’ suffering. Enter into the knowledge of His suffering is maybe a better way to put it.

We’re just getting started. I’m thankful for more time. I need to quiet my mind. To follow Jesus to the desert and watch Him resist the temptations. Watch as He sets His face toward Jerusalem. Watch as He prays in Gethsemane. Watch as He endures the trials and the mockery. Watch as He walks to Golgatha.
Watch as He saves us all.

And Watch as He comes forth from the grave.
There is a lot to watch. There is a lot to settle into our souls. Taking it a little at a time….and being moved and changed during this Lenten season…

LINKS:

Desiring God Lenten Readings

Bishop of London talks about Lent

“Perhaps it is the time to live more simply in order to tighten up the drumskin, so that God’s drumbeat can be heard more clearly in our lives.”

Lent Liturgies

The Collect

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional spring Ember Days.)

The Readings

Year A
Psalm 51 or 51:1-13
Genesis 2:4b-9,15-17,25-3:7 
Romans 5:12-19(20-21) 
Matthew 4:1-11

Year B
Psalm 25 or 25:3-9
Genesis 9:8-17 
1 Peter 3:18-22 
Mark 1:9-13

Year C
Psalm 91 or 91:9-15
Deuteronomy 26:(1-4)5-11 
Romans 10:(5-8a)8b-13 
Luke 4:1-13