Have you had enough Lent yet?

There is an old story told about a man who was dreaming that he was witnessing the crucifixion.  In this dream he couldn’t stand the gory thing that was happening as he watched the soldiers’ pound nails through the hands of Jesus.  So finally, in his dream he runs over and grabs a hold of the soldier and turned him around only to see that the face of the soldier was his own face.

This Lent we have been, in our cross of thorn readings, looking at how we participate in that event as well. How is it that we crucify Christ today?  How do we contribute to the crowd mentality to silence the voices we don’t want to hear?  To silence the message that can cause us to question our own motives, to question our priorities, to question our decisions?  How are we sometimes guilty of trying to rid ourselves of the ugliness of the cross of Christianity?  Sometimes, in our own humanity, we only want to hold on to the dawn of Easter morning while wanting to forget the darkness of Good Friday.    (From Pastor Randy's Sermon on March 9-10)

From Pamela:  Even those of us with the best of intentions on the week or two following Ash Wednesday may have reached this point in Lent with some "devotion fatigue" setting in.  We have had conversation as a staff that the Wednesday evening participation drops down as we come to the 4th or 5th Wednesday of Lent.  Perhaps we actually do believe that we have prayed enough, or fasted enough.  I know with the change of the season and the longer daylight hours we may become less inclined to come to church on a Wednesday evening -- it seems much more spring-like to dig around in either the flower bed or our closet.  We want to prepare our property and our wardrobe for spring.  

There is nothing wrong with that.  But maybe it makes sense to pause when we begin to think that Lent is getting to be burdensome or tedious.  

In reality, these next days of Lent (before the familiar patterns of Holy Week) may be times of significant transformation for each person.  As we acknowledge our feelings about the weight of Lent, we can more fully understand the expanse of what what is lifted from us in Easter!