As we come to February, we are about to begin the season of Lent. Lent is a time of taking on spiritual disciplines that can help us to focus on our need for the Good News of Easter. Some people practice the discipline of giving up certain things, others focus on taking up practices of generosity and simplicity. All of these practices are good and welcome ways to mark the season.
Within these Lenten practices, I am inviting the congregation to follow the theme of “God Acts” for this Lenten season. Rather than being preoccupied with the actions that we should take, let us start with the recognition that God acts first in our lives. All of our actions flow from God’s initiative. For this season, then, each week we will focus on a different way that God acts.
These ways that God acts are found in our Sunday scripture readings for the week, and they will connect to other activities in the congregation that week, such as mid-week services. I am also writing a daily devotional that includes suggestions of different types of spiritual practices or disciplines that I invite you to try. I will also suggest some science/nature activities related to the theme as well as a weekly family activity. I invite you to join in these various activities to the extent possible. The hope is that it can help all of us, as a congregation, put our daily focus on the ways that God acts in our lives. The weekly themes are: God endures, God chooses, God gathers, God overcomes fear, and God renews. Of course, this is only a small sample of the ways that God acts towards us.
As we embark upon Lent this year, I invite you to take part in this theme and think about the ways that God has acted in your life this past year. It has been a long, difficult year in so many ways, and yet our faith reminds us that God is not absent from us but rather is steadily at work in our midst. Take a moment each day to reflect and see how God has acted and called on you to act in response.
—Pastor Eric