Lent To Love: A Return To The Source

It is in coming to you daily–weak, hungry and in need of your Life flowing through me–that my troubled and darkened soul gradually gains in strength. ~St. Augustine

Lent: What does it mean?

1. Life itself is lent. Ashes, dust, a flower lasting but a moment, fading in the strong sun–you are temporary.

You are not the owner, you are a guest of the gracious Landlord. You learn, in time, to behave as a good guest will.

You say thank you, you clean up your mess and make your bed for the next guest to use.

You don’t hoard provisions or fight for position at the table; you pass the food, knowing your Host will rise early, tempting you from sleep with the aromas of the freshly baked day,

Lenten reminder: this is all given on loan.

2. You are lent to us.

Your kind words, your calloused hands, your willing feet are gifts from God to us. God’s works have been designed with you in mind–he knows your bent, the tasks that leave you breathless with joy, the life-bringing language only you speak.

Lenten reminder: you are blessed to be a blessing.

3. Jesus was lent to make a way to love.

God’s Son walked this earth long enough for us to see love fleshed out, long enough to accomplish the mighty act of redemption that changed everything.

Lenten reminder: what is lent to love can never be lost.

Lent is not a season of deprivation, but a return to love’s true source. When you fast, you acknowledge you’ve had enough of drinking from muddy wells and are ready to dip cupped hands into the spring that never runs dry.

Lent is from the Saxon word for spring.

• Spring, the season: barren and cold,  we look for signs of new life.
• Spring, the source: dry and desolate, we revive our thirst for God.

Lent To Love

In the weeks ahead we will look at the way of love, 1 Corinthians 13. The chapter begins with a warning: it’s time to turn from life defined by achievement, by the response of the crowd. Because

• No human eloquence,
• No amazing acts of spiritual power,
• No extraordinary generosity or martyrdom,

no headline grabbing excellence amounts to anything in the end, without love.

Without God’s love walking around in the unique, on loan, shape of you.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

What will you let go of so you can grasp this love?

Photograph by Melanie Hunt