Lent is not something as much as it is the absence of something.

The thing about going without is that it moves our attention from the thing to the lack of the thing.

As if we turn our attention to the voids in our lives, by creating a void. In going without, I am aware of something missing in my life. The lack of something material that creates, for a season, a noticeable shadow.

And in being aware of that shadow, I am drawn to all the other shadows in my life.

Like the void in my conscience that Christ’s voice should be filling.

Or the void in my timetable that meditation should be filling.

I think lent is about creating pot-holes for the sake of the whole road. As I fast, I am more tuned to the feelings of ‘want’ and ‘need’. Feelings that serve to push me back towards the mysterious divine, the father, and all those voids that the material world cannot satisfy.

Today is Shrove Tuesday. Traditionally it’s a day of feasting before fasting starts tomorrow. So join together and have some fun tonight because tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first of 40 days of Abstinence!

What will you give up to make room for God this Lent?

The season of Lent is approaching. And as in every new season change occurs. Buds appear, or the leaves fall. Dramatic moments that usher in creations changing moods. Times of singing, times of mourning. Time for being outside, time for staying indoors.

Lent is an interior season, first and foremost. It’s a time of reflection. The Gardener comes after a season of growth, productivity and harvest, and digs the soil, turns it over, exposes, waters, nourishes and then plants again, imagining the new crop. Lent invites gardener God to expose our lack and need of light and truth, probing the darkness and revealing the hidden, offering us the power of healing, forgiveness and freedom.

Lent. What is hidden in my life? What are my secrets. What are my Sins….? “Bring your light God, let truth expose darkness, nourish and cleanse, remove, and replace with seeds of life and fruitfulness.”

Lent. My sacrifice (a bar of chocolate?), my offering (the price of a coffee?), my prayer (Forgive me Lord), and an opportunity to give myself away again to a cause greater than my own.

How does a contemporary church partake in an ancient practice called Lent? Over a 40 days period that is symbolic of Jesus’ 40 days of testing and preparation in the wilderness, we fast, we pray, we gather and we tell stories.

Don’t do this alone. Even though its an individual experience, it also a shared community event. So come and pray together on Thursdays, worship in our community meetings on Sundays. And in People Groups, converse and encourage each other around your challenges and experiences,

This is a serious yet a great season to reflect and be honest, to make sacrifices and repent, and to emerge changed and refreshed.

Enjoy Lent Edge.