The Hard Part of Lent

What's the hardest part of Lent? Some would say getting started, especially if they are of a persuasion that gives up something they really enjoy, like chocolate, golf, or March madness basketball. But that is also why the meaning of Lent sometimes is lost on us since we get to pick what we give up in order to concentrate on a higher calling and remember the sacrifice Christ made. We usually pick an "add-on" to our lives rather than essential parts to "give up" for Lent. If we are not careful, God Himself can become an "add-on" rather than the Center and Life itself. Others may claim that the end of Lent is the hardest. It has been six weeks since the beginning and if you are planning on going back to eating, using, and enjoying some part of your life that you put on hold for six weeks the last few days can be agonizing. For those, the thought of ______ can overwhelm the senses and the imagination and thoughts of Jesus and His agony fall victim to our own, which is in itself a pretty good teaching point itself. But for many, if not most, the middle days of Lent are the hardest. You are half-way but not quite. The routine sameness has taken hold and meaning can easily be lost in the mundane. This is seen in the worship routine, the marriage routine, and the work routine. Humans long for stimulation of mind, body, and soul. The dreaded middle is a part of any relationship or system or calendar when the beginning can hardly be remembered and the end can't been seen. This is why some worshippers fall away after reaching the middle and the excitement of conversion has been replaced with a call to steadily walk in quiet submission with Jesus. That's why many marriages break up in the middle. The partners call it an end and find a more exciting beginning with someone else only to find in a few years they are right back in the middle again. In the case of Lent everyone arrives at the half way point at the same so there are no pilgrims coming back to say the end is up ahead and it's worth the journey. There are no stragglers to whom those farther along might call back words of encouragement. All are on the same journey and at the same place: the middle of Lent. But some of the greatest lessons occur during the middle. What is true in Lent is true in life. There are experiences and lessons that one can actually recall that got you to this point. The maturity of the middle and the journey to this point helps us to imagine joys at the end and remember that there is an end. Though not unique to Christianity, Christianity has more nearly perfected the art of remembering what hasn't yet happened. This "memory" encourages the middle pilgrim. The Bible calls these promises, and Jesus to Paul to Peter to John recommended their usage. So look around you. People all over are in the middle of something. They are in the middle of an argument; the middle of treatment; the middle of a project; the middle of a book; the middle of the week. It's just as far back as it is forward, so you might as well go forward, that's where the fulfillment of the promise is found. So weak by weak (there's no misspelling there) we muddle along through the middle. There's no false bravado about the middle being the best. The best in Christ is truly yet to come. But there is also no despair needed in our being about half way through anything for when you look really well you find Jesus right in the middle with us. Hopefully He finds us right in the middle of His will. And that is always a good place......... Cos