The Season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10. Watch your email and weekly announcement insert for the times of our Ash Wednesday services, but in the mean time, below you will find ways to enrich your Lenten Journey.
Beyond fasting: 10 tips for a more meaningful Lent 40 Days of Lent: Find your own spiritual path. . .
Taken from an article from United Methodist Communications,
Feature by Joe Iovino
Lent is a time for self-reflection and deepening one’s relationship with God in Jesus Christ. For many this season leading up to Easter will be weeks of giving up something they enjoy as a sign of con-trition for mistakes they have made. Others will spend extra time in devotions and prayer, while a few more will carry a cross or nail in their pocket as a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for them and the whole world.
If those practices work for you, wonderful! Others may want to find different ways of observing this holy season. Consider adopting one or more of the following creative uses of the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
Giving up something for Lent isn’t the only way to observe the season. Here are 10 creative alternatives
1. Apologize to someone ~ Lent is a season of repent-ance. Most often we think of asking God for for-giveness from our sin, but that is only half of the story. Most sins include hurting others, which mattered to Jesus. He taught that if during worship if you “remember that your brother or sister has something against you... First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24 CEB). Lent is a great time to seek forgiveness from those we have harmed.
2. Perform random acts of kindness ~ Express your love for Jesus by loving others. Pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive-through. Give an extravagant tip. Carry gift cards to give away. Ask others how they are doing, then stop and listen to
their responses. Share the love of Jesus in any way you can think of each day during Lent.
3. Delve into a book of the Bible ~ Enhance your de-votions by getting to know a book of the Bible well. Read it repeatedly, at least once in a single sitting. Find articles about it. Meditate on it with a commentary. Memorize portions of it. Pray through it. Google sermons about it. Find hymns based upon it. In the six weeks of Lent, you could develop a deep understanding of a book of the Bible about which you have always been curious.
4. Serve people in need ~ Identify an organization with which you would like to participate. Sign up and get trained. Then volunteer to serve throughout the season of Lent. When Jesus washed his disci-ples’ feet at the Last Supper, he taught that we are called not to be served, but to serve (John 3:1-17).
5. Visit the lonely ~ Jesus also taught his disciples to treat others as we would treat him. This included visiting those who are sick and in prison (Matthew 25:31-36). Talk to a local nursing home about washing wheelchairs, or a children’s hospi-tal about visiting with parents of patients. Volunteer with a prison ministry, senior center, or any other place where people need some human contact. Play games, tell stories, look at photo albums, and enjoy those about whom Jesus said, “when you have done it for [them], you have done it for me.”
6. Read Wesley’s sermons about the Sermon on the Mount ~ These 13 sermons (available online) are central to the message of John Wesley. They make up a little more than one-quarter of the fifty “Standard Sermons” he gave to his Methodist lay preachers to teach them “the essentials of true religion" (“The Sermons of John Wesley – An Introduction”). Reading these sermons will have you focused on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and give you a sense of what it means to be a United Methodist in the tradition of John Wesley.
7. Tell others you love them ~ Some of us struggle to say those three little words. Maybe we assume others already know how we feel. Maybe we think we show our love and don’t need to say it. Or maybe we are concerned it won’t be reciprocated. Fight the fear and say "I love you" to friends, family members, and everyone else you love at least once during the season.
8. Throw a party for everyone ~ Jesus often used the image of a party to describe the Kingdom of God. He talked about wedding receptions and banquet feasts, and participated in several large group cele-brations. Host your own Kingdom party by cooking for the neighborhood, or buying lunch for the entire office or your church. Feed everyone you can and give people an opportunity to be together.
9. Serve in worship ~ Your church needs you. Sing in the choir, usher, serve as a reader, work with the tech team, help a young family with their baby, or find some other way to serve your church. Don’t wait for someone to ask you to use your God-given gifts. Offer yourself in service to your church for the season.
10. Say “thank you” ~ Parents, family members, mentors, coaches, teachers, authors, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and others have shaped you into the person you are. Each week during Lent, send a note of gratitude to one of them. Tell them how much they meant to you and how they inspired you. Consider including a small gift. Even if you do not know that author or speaker person-ally, draft an email of thanks. There are many ways to be observant during Lent.
Be original. Find yours.
During Ash Wednesday services on the first day of Lent, many United Methodist pastors will invite their congregations “to observe a holy Lent: by self–examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self–denial; and by reading and meditating on God's Holy Word” (from the United Methodist Book of Worship). While you may be aware of this season leading up to Easter, you may won-der how you might “observe a holy Lent.”
There is no one prescribed way. Instead, we are each encouraged to find our own method of confronting our sinfulness, remembering our mortality, and giving thanks for the gift of salvation we receive through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Fasting ~ One of the more common practices is to give something up for Lent. Some abstain from chocolate, social media, shopping, or something else through the season. This is a religious practice known as fasting. We fast to reorient ourselves away from the distraction of those things, and back toward God. Another way to reorient your life toward God, is to focus on devotional practices like Bible study and prayer during the season.
Bible reading ~ Many do not know where to begin when reading the Bible. The Upper Room Daily Devotional Guide and Alive Now will help guide you in this pursuit. Each day they provide a scripture passage and wonderfully thought-provoking and spirit-enriching material to read and think about.
Prayer ~ In the busyness of our everyday lives, prayer can sometimes get squeezed out. Lent is a wonderful time to intentionally work toward finding more time in your life for prayer. You can experiment withdifferent ways to pray during the season, or really delve into a new-to-you way of praying. Enriching your prayer life is a great way to spend Lent.
Service ~ Another way to observe a holy Lent is to take on a new way of serving. Throughout the forty days of the season you can adopt a new habit of volunteering in the community, making special financial gifts to service organizations, singing in the choir, or participating in a small group.
Rest ~ An important practice with which many of us struggle is the spiritual discipline of rest or Sabbath. We don’t have to rest on Saturday, the traditional Sabbath day, or even Sunday. You can instead find moments during an ordinary day to be still in God's presence. You might choose to spend a few minutes during lunch with a desktop meditation, listen to sermons on your commute, or read a poem that feeds your spirit. Each can be a great way of enriching your Lent.
