“Easter Was Just the Beginning”

              In my last article I shared a little bit about why I love Lent.  I love how it forces us to reflect on things that we aren’t always comfortable thinking about, things like our own mortality and the sins that we are still living in.  I love how it culminates into the celebration we have at Easter, Resurrection Sunday.  That’s when we are reminded how God has given us victory over those things through the power of the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.  But now it’s April.  Now it’s time to see what the lasting effects of our Lenten devotion will really be.  You see it’s easy to stay focused for 40 days, especially while each Sunday you could see the area you were working on stapled to our cross up front.  It’s easy to stay focused while everyone around you is doing the same thing.  It’s easy to stay focused when at your small group you are being asked about how your journey through Lent is going.  But what will happen in April?  Or even further down the line, what will happen in May, November, or even next March as we start to enter into the season of Lent again?  Will still be working on the same things or will have seen a real, lasting change in our lives?

              Lent is a long enough period to develop a habit.  We have reflected long enough on a weak area in our life to see change.  And each Sunday, one way or another, you should still be reminded about the need to repent of our sins, grow in holiness and experience God’s grace.  You will still always have the opportunity in your small group to share about how you are growing in the grace of God, and hopefully your group will also help you stay accountable.  There are a lot of reasons to think that each season of Lent will leave a unique and positive impact on our lives, but none of these will matter if it isn’t done by the power of God.  I suppose that’s really what is on my heart for us as I write this, that we would be trusting in the power of God to free us from our burdens and sins.  If for forty days we have stayed vigilant simply by our own strength, without having turned to God for help, our strength will fade.  And you can bet that next Lent we will be working on the same old problems we were last year.  Without trusting in God to change us, without the power of His Holy Spirit, Lent will become a Churchy version of a New Year’s resolution.  A resolution we will burst out of the gate doing well to keep, but losing our focus as time goes on.  But if we turn to God, if we ask Him to transform us from the inside to the out, then we can see change.  If we start by seeking not forty day improvements, but changes in our whole life, we can see change.  If we realize that it is only by the power of the resurrection that we can be free from our sins, then we can see change.  God is good and loves to give good gifts to His children.  So let us put first the Kingdom of God in our lives and watch everything else be added unto that.  Let us look back and say Easter was the start of a celebration of the resurrection, but not the end.  Let us look back and say that Easter was just the beginning. 

     Keep the Faith,

Matthew