Preparing for the Season of Lent

The sign of the cross deepens
its impact when we
add a spiritual discipline.

As we move into the season of Lent, this is the forty days (not including Sundays) prior to Easter Sunday.  It always begins on Ash Wednesday but because Easter is tied to the lunar cycle, the calendar date moves around each year. 

Many Christians give up something during the season of Lent as a spiritual discipline.  It might be a fasting from soda, desserts, or television.  One year I tried fasting from food on Fridays during Lent.  Lately, I’ve seen people give up certain entertainment apps on their phones. 

Rather than give something up, some people prefer to adopt a new spiritual discipline during Lent.  In the latter part of my life, I’ve discovered the discipline of journaling through a book or section of the Bible.  Last year, I took the Sermon on the Mount (in Matthew) and the Sermon on the Plain (in Luke) and looked at parts of these each day and wrote about them.

This year, I’m going to be working through the book of Job from the Hebrew Bible.  Since it contains 42 chapters, it is fairly easy to divide for daily reading (I don’t post on Sundays).  The book will be helpful during Lent as we examine the overarching theme of suffering and how our faith intersects with it.  This corresponds nicely with the journey of Jesus to the cross during these forty days.

I will post these to my blog (precedinggrace.blogspot.com) and each day’s piece will hit the web at 3 am in case there are some really early risers out there!  I will also post these to my Facebook and X accounts at a more reasonable hour of the morning each day.    Boston Avenue UMC will feature these as their Daily Devotions and you can signup for a daily email if you prefer.

Each post will include a link to the day’s reading.  At the end of Lent, you will have read through the entire book of Job.  Some people include as a part of their discipline to comment on something that relates specifically to them.  This also has the added advantage of circulating the post to a wider audience.

As we look toward Lent starting on Ash Wednesday, what might you consider for your spiritual discipline this year?

Photo by Ahna Ziegler on Unsplash