Explore

Many of us will have the Lenten tradition of giving something up, or adopting something new, and we will carry out this practice for the 40 days. This can be a wonderful experience but I think we need to be careful about how and why we do it. Sometimes we simply fast so we can binge. I have definitely had to lie on the floor on Easter Sunday having eaten my body weight in chocolate, the very thing I gave up. What purpose does that serve? Or are you so rigid in your practice that as soon as you slip up, as soon as you eat a pringle or forget to say thank you to the cashier you feel you have failed and give up on the rest of Lent?

Instead, can Lent be a time to explore and ask questions of ourselves? If you have chosen to give something up, brilliant, but spend time in prayer, reflect on why you chose that item to give up. What makes that practice hard, what makes it easy? If you have chosen to add something new, why now, what stopped you before? If you slip up or go astray in your Lenten practice, its not the end, it’s just an opportunity to reflect and explore what caused that slip and how does it feel?

If we use Lent as a time to explore alongside our traditional practices, I wonder if we cant get a better understanding of our relationship with God and our relationship with our own self worth. If we use Lent as a time of practice, then what we foster and develop can extend outside of Lent and change our lives forever.

Let us go to God in prayer.

Almighty Lord, we thank you for this special, holy season in our year. We give you thanks for the opportunities it provides for us to grow spiritually. May we take this time not only to deny ourselves of guilty pleasures but, God, be with us as we reflect carefully on the choices we make so easily each day, the habits we form, the comforts we come to rely on. Some may serve of us, but some will not. May this Lent be a true force for change as we practice denying ourselves of those things which hold us back on our spiritual walk, those things which hold us back from being our true selves, made in your image.

Heavenly Parent, many of us will have taken on new practices this Lent, new ways of giving of our time, our money, our resources, new ways of devoting ourselves to prayer and worship and time with you. May it not be a race to Easter Sunday to get the job done, to complete the task, to achieve, complete and end. Heavenly Parent support us to allow this Lent to be a starting off point to developing new spiritual practices, new ways of acting that we can carry on in to the rest of the year and the rest of our lives.

Holy Spirit, be with us this Lent, as we rest with our struggles and challenges. May we learn from how we deal with our needs and desires, may we find new ways to manage those things that tempt us, may you enable to us grow a little stronger each day.

Holy Spirit rejoice with us as we give thanks for all that we have, that we are so blessed that we have things we can indeed give up and still live safe fulfilled lives. May we take a moment to ask for your blessing to be poured out on those who have so little there is nothing they can forego this Lent, may your blessings be poured upon those who work to turn this around.

Jesus, we ask that this Lent encapsulates all that it means to walk by you, with you and in your footsteps. We will walk with you from desert to cross. We want to walk this earth loving, being challenged, exploring and learning so we can love even more.

In your name we ask all these things;

Amen