What are you going to take on for lent?

Thursday 2nd February 2023 16:15

Lent is a time of preparation for Easter. Very often people give up chocolate, I have often given up cake and sometimes I have given up alcohol. Giving things up is about training ourselves in self-discipline, about proving to ourselves that under God we can choose the best over that which is good. But what about taking something on? 

It could be as simple as investing three hours a year in our quiet morning! This year Rev Nicholas Cheeseman is coming to help us think about hearing God’s call. For 30 years Nicholas has been reading and thinking about hearing God’s call and his current job is as our Area Director of Ordinands which means he comes alongside those who might be called to be a priest. On the other hand God’s call for most of us is to be a good spouse and parent, and to serve the community in practical ways.  

Or how about using the 40 days of lent to help us adopt a new habit? A simple daily discipline I would recommend is the examen. It involves pausing at the same time every day and writing down when I have felt closest to God and when I have farthest from God in the last 24 hours. I then add a prayer that God will help be be close to him tomorrow and pray the Lords prayer which includes forgive us our sins and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Over the last 36 years this daily discipline has helped me enormously. I would love you to give it a try.