Lent is intended to be a journey – part of your personal adventure with God. A journey that helps us prepare for the celebration of the gift of Easter. So many of us build elegant, detailed plans for our lives, adventures, and journeys. We carefully control where we will stop, when to buy gas, stay the night, and who we will travel with. We even envision what we will see and our conversations with those who share our crazy plans. Lent can be that kind of adventure, that kind of journey – but should it?
In my professional and personal life every plan, no matter how detailed and elegant, always changed when mingled with the reality of life. In some cases, that crisp vision, those controlled details took a hard left or crashed all together. In the end, many of those projects looked so much better than I’d ever hoped. Lent will be that too – if we let it!
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11
As Jeremiah frames so clearly for us, our best laid earthly plans don’t always align with God’s perfect plans. Lent provides an amazing opportunity and framework that allows us to slow down, look around, and most importantly to listen to God. It’s a chance to take a leap of faith, give up a little control (that we really don’t have anyway) and trust God’s perfect plan.
Prayer: Father, you never intended for us to get lost in the details – to control the minutia. During this Lent help us to slow down, to spend time in your word, spend time with you. Help us Lord to understand your plans. Grant me the courage to take that leap of faith to trust you and your timing during Lent and throughout my life.