Give Up Something Small, Receive a Priceless Bounty

I didn't grow up in a church that embraced the season of Lent. My only exposure to the practice was kids attending the local Catholic school. Several rode my school bus. They complained every spring about not having candy (or some other beloved item) for 40 days.






I felt their pain. How could abstaining from candy ever be beneficial?






Fast forward 35 years. My relationship with Jesus had actually become a relationship. I was no longer simply a born again church-goer whose heavenly future was certain. Now Jesus was the King Who kept company with me. And because of that beautiful reality, I saw Lent with new eyes: 40 days ripe with built-in opportunities to connect with Jesus! Giving up something I enjoyed, something I would miss numerous times every day, provided multiple moments to talk to Jesus. Moments beyond grace at meals and nighttime prayers. Could this be the entry point to Paul's urging to pray always?






For me, it was. Lent changed my life.






I surrendered two foods that were daily staples in my life. I missed them on Day One. By Day Fifteen I'm embarrassed to say I seriously considered giving up giving up! That is until I was hit with this reality: Jesus was abandoned by His friends, tortured, and pinned naked to a cross -- for me -- and deleting two FOODS from my life for 40 days was tempting me to go back on a promise I made Him. I was disillusioned by my wimpyness. But Jesus wasn't. He knows I'm dust. A dusty daughter that He loves. Would He have loved me less had I given in to my temptation? No. Did He love me more because I didn't? Absolutely not.




Lent isn't about earning more of God's favor or pleasure. It's simply a yearly opportunity to empty out a place in our souls so that Jesus can enter in.






And that's what happens for me each Lent. Every yearning for what's been surrendered is replaced with this simple prayer: Jesus, let me know You. And He does. Not necessarily in that moment; but in quiet and often surprising ways (hello, grocery checkout line!) during Lent, and thereafter.






The way of Jesus often appears nonsensical. To become great, we must become small. To find our lives, we must lose them. Lent takes us down the same paradoxical path: Give up something small and receive the priceless bounty of the Lord of Lent...and Easter...and Resurrection...and Eternity.