{"id":1842,"date":"2017-02-28T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/?p=1842"},"modified":"2018-02-08T14:44:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T20:44:53","slug":"the-purpose-and-power-of-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/2017\/02\/28\/the-purpose-and-power-of-lent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Purpose and Power of Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

This post is adapted from a piece I wrote originally for RELEVANT Magazine and posted last year. <\/em>
\nClick here<\/a> to read the original article.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In church tradition,\u00a0Lent is the season preceding Easter, and it is often set aside\u00a0as a time of remembrance\u00a0and repentance. It is a season of preparation, a time of waiting and reflecting.<\/p>\n

But is Lent important? Is it worth observing\u2014or at least acknowledging\u2014especially if, like me, you\u2019re not currently part of a liturgical church tradition?<\/p>\n

Even after years of not being in a church that intentionally observes Lent, I still think so. Here are some reasons why\u00a0Lent matters\u2014and how it can point us to the truth of the Gospel in practical, important ways:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lent Reminds Us That We Need to Repent<\/h3>\n

Repentance is not an easy pill to swallow; repentance is a call to turn around and away from our sinful ways. First, it means acknowledging that we are sinners, and second, it means saying no to our sin. But repentance is at the very heart of Christianity: we cannot, in fact, follow Jesus without repenting of our way and choosing His way instead (Acts 2:38).<\/p>\nLent is a season of acknowledging our consistent, daily need to repent. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Lent is a season of acknowledging our consistent, daily need to repent\u2014and therefore, of our consistent need for a savior.<\/strong> It\u2019s important to remember how desperately we need to be saved from our sin, and that Jesus is the only hope we have to be saved; that reality grounds us in His kindness and goodness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lent Helps Us Pare Down Our Excesses<\/h3>\n

Historically, Christians have understood Lent as\u00a0a time when unneeded things are stripped away in order to remind us of our neediness before and for God. Christians still do this today, giving up meat or chocolate, or abstaining from alcohol or watching television.<\/p>\n

By taking away things that divert our attention and feed our desires, the season of Lent invites us to attend to what is really happening on the inside of our souls\u2014and to have our needs met by God first and only.<\/strong><\/p>\nLent invites us to attend to what is really happening on the inside of our souls. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

<\/h3>\n

Lent Points\u00a0Us to\u00a0Our Humanity<\/h3>\n

In college, I was part of a liturgical church in college, and I attended my first Ash Wednesday service. There, I was marked with a cross in ash while hearing the words, \u201cFrom dust you came, and to dust you will return.\u201d<\/p>\n

It felt like someone had sucked all of the air out of the room; suddenly, I was faced with my own death. As a college student, I rarely thought about my own finiteness, my own frailty. But that declaration over me\u2014that I started from dust and will return to dust\u2014deeply humbled me, in the best of ways.<\/p>\n

Lent pointed me back to the truth that all of my value and all of my purpose comes from being a person made in the image of the God who created me and made the way for me to be saved.<\/strong> Apart from Him, I am dust; I am nothing and I have nothing. But because of His great love, my life is worth much more than dust.<\/p>\n

Lent Sobers Us\u2014in Order to Prepare Us for Celebration<\/h3>\n

Lent is a season of reflection\u2014even of mourning\u2014and that attitude flies in the face of the cultural waters most of us swim in. Sobering ourselves by confronting our own brokenness\u2014by pausing our desire to keep things light and easy\u2014is necessary if we want to celebrate the miraculous and life-altering message of Easter.<\/p>\n

If we aren\u2019t aware of our sinfulness and need, we won\u2019t be able to comprehend the desperation of Good Friday or the world-changing truth of the Resurrection.<\/strong> Sobering our hearts and minds in preparation for Easter enables us to celebrate more deeply and joyfully, perhaps, than we would have without the solemnness of the season.<\/p>\n

Because knowing our true nature, knowing our need for Jesus\u2014this makes Easter the best and most necessary Good News we could ever hear.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Writing<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Still<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is adapted from a piece I wrote originally for RELEVANT Magazine and posted last year. Click here to read the original article.\u00a0 In church tradition,\u00a0Lent is the season preceding Easter, and it is often set aside\u00a0as a time of remembrance\u00a0and repentance. It is a season of preparation, a time of waiting and reflecting. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[370,61,369],"class_list":["post-1842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-god","tag-ash-wednesday","tag-christianity","tag-lent","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The-Power-and-Purposeof-Lent.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1842"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}