I grew up believing that Lent was a silly thing that Catholics do to deprive themselves of something in order to make themselves seem more holy. This didn't come from my parents or church teachings or anything, it was just my perception of the whole idea of fasting for forty whole days.
Now, at age 20, I have just come out of my first season of Lent, and I am so grateful that I observed this part of the Church calender this year.
Today I woke up with a great joy. It had nothing to do with logging into this social networking site that I have dutifully avoided for forty days. The joy came from the known fact that CHRIST IS RISEN!! He defeated death! How incredible and amazing is that!
One thing I never really understood growing up was that we spend a whole month celebrating Christmas-Christ's birth- but for His victory over death and sin we give Him one day that is to be shared with a mythical bunny that hides colorful eggs. It is great that he came as a man as we celebrate in December, but it wouldn't matter if he hadn't died, risen and ascended into heaven.
The Church calender lets us walk through this incredible drama of Christ's birth, death, burial, resurrection and ascension every single year. The forty days of Lent have a somewhat ominous and sad feeling to it. Good Friday leaves the people of Christ in despair just as his disciples felt as they realized that their leader and teacher was dead. But, as we all know and experienced today, that is not the end of the story. Because of these forty days of deprivation the joy experienced on Easter is incredible!
I am encouraged. Not only did I learn the trivial fact that I don't need to be on Facebook at every free moment, but I felt the joy of making it through that season in order to experience the joy of Christ's victory.
Yet the waiting is not over. We have not yet experienced being with him in all of his glory. For that we will have to wait. Just as the two lovers in Song of Solomon wait and long to be with each other, we must be diligent in looking forward to being with our Beloved. The wait seems long and arduous, filled with discouragements and despair, but when we meet with Him in glory all of that will be forgotten.
"It is appropriate for the young Christian to seek after Christ in order to experience heaven, but the mature Christian longs to go to heaven in order to be with Christ."
~Brian Denker, Christ Community Church's Good Friday Service 2009
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1 comment:
You know, it's pretty funny. When I messaged you the other day on Facebook, I had just completed my personal Facebook fast. That struck me as ironic and odd, so I figured I would let you know.
I also know it's fun to receive comments on blogs, so there ya go :)
-Josh Gibson
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