We’re about to begin our second Leap Of Faith 40 days of prayer. During the course of our preparations you’ve heard Lent, mentioned a lot. Maybe you’re not quite sure what Lent’s about, so I thought it might be helpful to explain a little bit about it.

A special season

Today, dedicated believers all over the world begin observing the Lenten season. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter.

Lent traditionally consists of forty days, which are marked by prayer, fasting, reflection and by other acts of penance and almsgiving. The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission and calling.

Taking a fresh look

Today many Protestants (including the Vineyard) consider the observation of Lent to be a choice, rather than an obligation. They use this period of time for introspection, self- examination, and repentance. They may decide to give up a favorite food or drink (e.g. chocolate, alcohol) or activity (e.g., going to the movies, playing video games, etc.) for Lent, or they may instead take on a Lenten discipline such as devotions, volunteering for charity work, or in case of our church, Leap Of Faith. But at the heart of it all is preparation to celebrate God’s wonderful redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for, as Christians.

Lent is a way to place us before God in humble gratitude and dependence. It is a way to confess our total inadequacy to “measure-up” and to strip ourselves bare of all false pretense and pride that blind us to our own neediness and the needs of others. During these six weeks we seek to open ourselves up before Christ, and to hear his call “Come to me!” in a fresh new way. We seek to recognize and respond anew his presence in our lives and his challenge to “cross that moat”. By practicing believing prayer, we seek to place our needs, our fears, our failures, our hopes, and our very lives in God’s hands again it just may be the beginning of the healing we’ve been longing for. And by abandoning ourselves to Jesus’ death we seek to recognize again who God is, to allow his transforming grace to work in us once more, to hear God in ways that we have not heard him before and to come to worship him on Easter Sunday with a fresh victory and hope.

Here’s to Lent and an exciting, deeply meaningful and fun Leap of Faith…

Mike T