WHO ARE YOU COMING HOME TO THIS LENT SEASON?
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
If were going to beat the storm, we better drive thru the night to get to your Mom’s for Christmas, I said to Christy knowing I had no desire for this 53 year old body to be driving well into the early hours of the am. I am ready for bed by 930 these days. We literally drove thru 2 storm systems one to the east and one to the west of us. We were hoping we would beat the storm but didn’t know what we would encounter. And even though we made it without incident, there was another anxious wondering about what we would encounter when we got home for Christmas.
There had been some relational strain going on in the family that we weren’t a part of but you know, your always a part of it even if it doesn’t center around you. We had no idea what we were coming home to for the next 5 days of being with family. We were hoping for certain things but really were unsure what we would find.
Every year, Lent feels like this to me. It’s a coming home, a returning full of a bit of anxiousness at the invitation from Jesus to look inward to the ways in which I have left home. And no matter how long I have been returning, in all honesty I sometimes still feel like I’m not sure what kind of Jesus I’ll come home to. Sometimes it seems like I should be further down the road of absolutely knowing how this will go but every year throughout the year my leaving home gets nuanced a bit.
The prodigal son story (Luke 15) is a picture of how we are invited back home. Lent is an invitation to intentionally look at how we have moved away from the Father in our soul. Notice His presence is always with us but my soul’s posture can be resistant to His presence. But if we are going to walk into Lent with any interior freedom whatsoever, we first must ask, who are you coming home to this Lent? What kind of Father do you sense is waiting for you?
I was waking up one morning not too long ago, and the Spirit almost immediately said, you know you still have trouble coming fully toward the Father. It caught me off guard a bit but I sensed a loving invitation to explore that more. Lent offers us a benevolent grace and mercy to look at my nuanced false self ways of leaving home, and even surrendering a lack of self control in some areas of my life that need moderation as Paul tells us. All of these invitations seem only feasible if I first have a good handle on who I think I think I am coming home to?
The practice of imaginative prayer, which is turning our attention to what the face of Jesus welcoming you home might look like can be very helpful during Lent. Imagining The face of Jesus is one of the most transformational practices we can hold. Jim Wilder in his book The Other Half of Church says, throughout the Bible, Gods face is connected with joy. The priestly blessing of Numbers 6 encourages us to literally feel the joy of Gods face shining on you because He is happy to be with you. What often gets lost in translations of the Bible is the hebrew rendering for presence of God which literally means the face of God. As Wilder says the light of God’s presence doesn’t feel the same to us as the light of Gods face turned toward us.
This is why it’s important to have a face to come home to in Lent. And it’s a face that is happy for you to come with all you have to bring. How do I know this? The bible tells us in Luke 15, the father was full of compassion and threw a party for the prodigal. Does that sound like a God whose brow is furled at you? Or one of joy that you can bring all of you both the good, bad, and ugly. Lent season is an invitation to surrender, explore, change, and feel the gracious welcoming yet passionate desire for us to become more like Christ by becoming more aware of the ways we have become less like Jesus throughout the year.
Reflect as you prepare for Lent
Where have I seen an image of Jesus face that draws me? This might have been a book, movie, piece of art. Use that image as a way of coming home with yourself this Lent.
What are some ways I have left home this past year? Internal movements, attitudes, actions, assumptions, images of God I have taken on that aren’t true, lies I have believed about myself or God, ect…Name those as they surface. Bring those to the Father whose face is happy that you are coming home.
What is the longing underneath those ways?
A Prayer for Lent
We thank You that it's possible now for us to have our hearts melted by the knowledge of Your love for us, to have our hearts maintained and changed by the remembrance of Your grace for us, and, most of all, to be completely changed by the knowledge of what Your Son has not just done for us, but what Your Son is for us." — Tim Keller
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 22. It’s a season that reflects the 40 days in the desert that Jesus spent being tempted and overcoming. It invites us into prayer, fasting, and service to remember what Christ has done for us in his death and resurrection. It culminates on Easter weekend. I want to invite you to explore our weekly Lent blog that our ministry, Space for Your Soul is putting together just for you. We are giving you the gift of multiple voices which I am very excited about. I hope you will find it helpful and I am grateful at the weekly voices you will hear from that will give us a diverse look at this Lent season.