What We Should Add

Today is the start of Lent, and well what we normally do for Lent is give something up for 40 days.  The point in giving something up is that we realize that the material or stuff in our life is less important or less priority than other things.  Normally, we would ask each other, “What shall we give up?”  But after thinking about it for a while and having a good conversation with Rev. Dennis Braun, something popped in my head. 
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Rev. Braun is preparing the Ash Wednesday service for his church and he picked a great passage to preach on.  He decided to go into the book of Job chapter 2.  This is an amazing passage because instead about the concept of Lent being about giving something up for God, it tells us to return to God with all our hearts. 

Sometimes we can focus so much on giving up something for God, it just sounds so negative.  But what if whatever we plan on doing for Lent we change our approach of thinking.  That is that everything we do, it is about returning to God with our hearts, with our entire being.  That includes not just about the “stuff” but also our emotions, our actions, our habits, our schedules.
You see, it isn’t about stopping and giving up something, but it’s all about adding God into your already set life.  Instead of giving up TV for God, what if you decide that when you watch TV, we put on some religious/theological lenses.  How is God still speaking to you, even if the things we do seem mundane or unimportant. 

Lent is all about adding God in our already demanding, busy life.  It is about reminding ourselves that God is with us always in everything that we do and that God is your guide and companion in every aspect of human life. 

Instead of focusing on what we should give up for 40 days, lets focus on what we could add that reminds us to embrace our faith.  Think about what more we can do for 40 days.  In whatever you do for God in these 40 days, make it meaningful and with great purpose.  And whatever, you do, at the end of those 40 days, make it last for the future to come.  Life is continual, and everything that we do, say, and believe is about a continual journey of faith. 
God bless you all, and may this Lenten season bring you clarity and purpose!