The Tribune

By Rev Angela C Bosfield

Palacious

Lent is the time in the church’s year when we focus intentionally on our spiritual life in an effort to draw closer to God and be a better disciple. If we want our faith to be real for us and for those who know us, then we have to keep growing in grace and becoming more like Jesus Christ.

This involves setting aside time to hear from God and to be more faithful in our use of the rest of our day and night.

This is the time to be deliberate in establishing a set period for the study of Scripture, prayer, and worship. If you are not connected to God in a meaningful way then now is the time to make a change.

Lent is the season to make some space in our schedule to be quiet, to read, to think and to remember the needs of others.

Create opportunities to notice the beauty of nature, and we have so much all around us here to do just that. Relax and enjoy the scenery, engage in some gardening activities, or look out the window and listen to the birds. Invite close friends to read a spiritual book as a group, or plan a project together to alleviate some families’ suffering.

A disciplined disciple is seemingly self-motivated but is really under the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit.

There is a strong urge that comes over such a person to go beyond the norm and do more than what is expected. There is a higher standard to achieve, an eternal goal for which to aim. It is all about gratefully responding to the One who calls us to worship and loving service. 
If you are giving up something, let it be a blessing to you and to someone else. Missed meals may become a source of monetary blessing to the hungry. No watching of television may mean more time in spiritual activities and family conversation.

If you are taking on something, let it be an extra service or act of service, boosting the numbers in worship or in the particular ministry. If you are adopting a more pleasant attitude or exercising more patience, then all who have contact with you will be the better for it.

The best balance is to give up and take on at the same time. Consider how you may engage in specific spiritual exercises for the next 40 days (excluding Sundays). Some things need to continue for the rest of the year, and this is where being a disciplined disciple takes you beyond the bare minimum to actually seek permanent change.

Let Lent give your spiritual battery a jump start in the right direction. Then make it into a habit, a discipline that controls your way of life. Every disciple has to determine the right blend of time and space, of quiet and busyness, of silence and speech in order to be a faithful servant of God. We are each unique and our circumstances vary, but in the end we want to hear God say: “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master (Matt. 25:23 NRSV).”