Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. This is a time of reflection and repentance in preparation for Easter and Eastertide.
Ash Wednesday is one of the most meaningful services for me. It is the time when we are deeply reminded of our mortality and utter dependence on the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Last night at Jacob's Well, Tim Keel shared Romans 12:2 from Eugene Peterson's The Message.
"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." Romans 12:2
I had been contemplating and praying what my focus would be during Lent and this verse solidified my thoughts. I want to "Put On" faithful and consistent "Fixed Hour Prayer" during Lent. I want to "Put Off" contempt toward the "other."
The current realities in our cultural environment is pregnant with "contempt." I find myself constantly getting angry watching the news. I find myself getting upset when it feels like Christians have allowed their agenda to be co-opted by partisan politics. I believe there are so many great people and committed Christians who hold positions across the political spectrums but we don't know how to understand the other and therefore we don't feel we are understood. Followers of Jesus should confound both political parties with a different way of interacting in our world. I need to sit at the feet of Jesus and allow Christ to overcome my contempt for those who think differently than I do. This doesn't mean I don't have strong positions but it does mean that I don't allow the propaganda machines of this world to control my emotions and the way I interact with those who see the world differently than I do.
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