Thought of the Day !!

"...therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Job 42:6 (NIV)

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. It was the first day of the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday services were held all around the world, and ashes were placed on Christians' foreheads as a sign of their repentance and mortality.

Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season that follows is a time of personal spiritual renewal. It's a time where we take a deep look inside ourselves and see who we really are. I like to think of it as looking at ourselves and seeing the stuff that we hide from the rest of the world but that God sees.

This is done through fasting and prayer. Fasting is an ugly word today because we have made it mean depriving ourselves of all food for a specified period of time. But in reality that's not really what fasting is. We can give up anything that's important to us when we fast. As a matter of fact, many people today have medical conditions that won't allow them to completely deprive themselves from food. In the early Church they would give up meat for Lent. Today it may be caffeine or chocolate or a specific television show or cigarettes etc.

Lent can also be about taking things up. During Lent we may take up a daily devotional or exercise or better diet or doing a good deed daily or something else like that.

Lent should definitely be about praying more (or being more intentional about our prayer life) and studying God's Holy Word more. It's about seeing where we need to change (or repent) and then drawing closer to God. When these things are done and we suffer for Christ by fasting throughout Lent, Easter takes on a whole new meaning.

In the love of Christ,
greg