Well it didn’t take long, did it?! I said I’d try to post daily during Lent, and here it is, Day 3, and I almost didn’t make it! As it is, it’ll probably be short.
I ended yesterday’s contribution by saying that Lent is modeled after stories in the Bible about periods of probation or preparation such as the 40 days of rain in the story of Noah in Genesis, or the 40 years in the wilderness of the Hebrew people in Exodus, or the 40 days of preparation and testing of Jesus in the wilderness before setting out on his ministry.
And in fact, it’s possible I may not try. What, really, does it matter what Lent is tied to in the Bible or in the past? Perhaps, for me at this point of time in 2012, I need to be focusing on what is to come. Lent can be a time of thinking back, reflecting on that which has brought us to this point. Lent can be a time of repentance for our past.
Or, Lent can be a time of preparation. For Jesus 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, his 40 days does not appear to have been a time of repentance for what had gone before, but rather a period of preparation for what is going to come.
They say it takes about 20 days to learn a new habit, or to break an old one. Perhaps this Lent is for me a period to pick some new discipline and then train myself in it as a way of preparing my heart for Easter Sunday.
On The Road II 