Invitations can be exciting or daunting, depending on the event to which we’re invited and the one making the invitation. Each year, as we begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, the invitation is made to our congregation to observe and keep a Lenten discipline. We are invited to enter into those 40 days as a time of spiritual preparation for Easter as we recall the great devotion of Jesus who suffered, died and was raised again. This is one of the oldest continuous traditions of the Christian faith, and it is also sometimes the most misunderstood.
It is true that these disciplines often take the form of prayer, fasting and self-denial, but these are not the goal of Lent, and they sound like the sort of invitation we might dread. The truth is we are invited into such disciplines not to prove our devotion, but to give us a gift. And this gift is the space and opportunity to examine our relationships with God and others, to repent, and to restore us to newness of life. This Lenten season, I want to offer you a very concrete Lenten discipline that I hope will do just that.
As a way of encouraging each one of us in our individual prayer and devotional life, I am inviting you to participate in a daily devotional series called “Mercy, Passion & Joy” based on the writings of C. S. Lewis. Devotional books will be distributed at our Ash Wednesday service and will be available in the narthex throughout Lent. And for families with children, we have an additional option entitled “Upon this Tree” that offers a short reading and activity to mark each day.
The invitation to a Lenten discipline all too often feels like receiving an invitation to an event you know you should attend, but don’t really want to. This year, consider yourself invited to something better. Through these devotional books, you are invited spend time every day in prayer and devotion with God with the encouragement and knowledge that your brothers and sisters in Christ have been invited to do the same.