lent Archives - Gindi Vincent

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. In 40 days, it will be Good Friday. So today I’m beginning a series of days of “decrease.”

I’ve written for years about Lent. Mainly because I’m still Learning Lent, as I wrote in 2013. My childhood faith tradition did not recognize a practice of Lenten sacrifice. But as I shared eight years ago, “Lent isn’t about forfeiting as much as it’s about formation. We renounce to be reborn. We break away to become.”

In 2015, I shared another new learning on Lent. Lent is a wise tradition that insists we deal with our heart’s biggest spiritual issue. We are prone to wander, to forget, to blame, and to hide. We want to make our own way.

Even last year, I grappled with the season (years I give up, years I give back…). I tried to give up yelling. (Little bit reminds me today it wasn’t that successful. And THAT was pre-COVID.)

I missed this kick off to Lent this past week. Mainly because on Ash Wednesday over half of Houston WAS sacrificing without power, water, or cell service. We GAVE UP a ton of stuff.

But not for 40 days.

As I sat in church this morning (thankful to be back after surgery) and in the pastor’s class afterwards, Lenten sacrifices swirled in my head. No one specifically coming to the fore. Then someone mentioned Lent as a period of decrease.

John the Baptist’s words from John Chapter 3 immediately jumped into my head, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

There is a lot in my life there is TOO MUCH of. Things which weaken my faith or take my attention away from Jesus because there is just TOO MUCH. Too much social media, too much wine, too much impatience, too much need for control, too much sloth, too much worry, too much yelling, too much eating, too much apathy, on and on.

What if, instead of selecting ONE thing to give up, every day I pray for one area to decrease?

What if I put sticky notes on my doors and my mirrors reminding me that I need to ask where God is calling me to limit, eliminate, lay down? Last year, for example, I did better with not losing my patience and hollering at the kids, but I certainly didn’t succeed every day.

But one day. Well that feels very manageable. Plus, I have SO many areas to choose from where God needs my sacrifice (sigh, all these years of faith and still so far to go). This season can teach me in more area than one.

How do I go about these days of decrease?

One, I need to wake up earlier. Between COVID and the cancer diagnosis, I have allowed myself to sleep in far later than I have in my adult life. It was just a couple of years ago when I was working out at 5:15 in the morning with my neighbor. Now there are days I’m not out of bed until close to 7. That means rushed mornings with absolutely zero time for listening to God.

Two, once I’m up, the first thing every morning will be time in prayer. Some days it may be shorter than others. But I can read a devotional or a scripture and pray for what God would have me decrease that day.

Maybe I go to Him with my problems instead of my friends. Maybe I don’t open a single social media app. I might need to clean. To exercise. To fast. Who knows? I really don’t. I have no preconceived ideas of what this season will call for.

But I have long been struck by the value of a 40 day period. I’ve written about it and studied it. Coming off of a year of COVID and breast cancer, I can’t think of a better time for a 40 day rebirth.

Our church put this meditation on the screen this morning: During the season of Lent, the church travels with Jesus on the road to the cross. As we prepare to remember our Savior’s betrayal, arrest, suffering, and death, we reflect on what things in our lives we may need to put to death so we can live in the newness of Jesus resurrection and ascension. May the light of Christ shine more deeply into our hearts as we walk this road with him, revealing the darkness within us, and making us new.

Today is Day 1 on the road to Good Friday’s Day 40. It turns out, coming into this season a little belatedly is okay. We still have 40 days to lay down the things that are obstructing our faith. To pick up the things that draw us closer to Him.

It’s not a traditional Lenten “what I’m giving up” resolution. But this is no traditional year. If ever there was a time to deal with dark corners of my life in order to live more filled up with Light, then this is it.

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4

I grew up in churches but not in ones that emphasized Lent. I really don’t remember hearing it taught until maybe sometime in law school. Even for years after that it never really impacted me (maybe because there was no Facebook with everyone posting about what they were giving up!). I’d grown up with Good Friday and Easter Sunday but not paying that much attention to the 40 days before.

Recently, I’ve paid more attention. But never more than this year. You see, I’m up early this morning writing this post and spending time praying over what these next 40 days would reveal. I’m a big fan of those Biblical 40 day periods. I’ve even written a 40 day marriage preparatory devotional that might see the light of day one of these days. I love how God uses that time period to transform. To grow. To commission.

The 40 day period that comes to mind during this start of the 40 day Lenten season is the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before He began His ministry. You can read about it in Matthew 4, but we see that it is a hard season filled not only with prayer and fasting but also with some pretty hard tests, tests maybe some of us can even relate to (tests of pride, tests of physical will power, tests of even proving yourself).

I read this yesterday on a blog I don’t even know how I found, and it struck a nerve, “Friends, Lent is a wise tradition that insists we deal with our heart’s biggest spiritual issue: we are prone to wander, to forget, to blame, and to hide. We want to make our own way. The tradition of Lent is a mercy. It is an intentional time before Easter to turn away from our dead-end devices. We turn away from the false, and we turn to the True. We turn our face, attention, interest, energy, and all our will towards the face of God. Sin (wanting our own damn way) hardens our heart, sears our conscience, and darkens our mind. Our eyes and words turn haughty. We compare and despair and bemoan. We are easily offended, greedy for affirmation and self-justification. We seek our will be to done, grumbling and blaming when it isn’t. Sin hides God’s true image from the world that he loves. We desperately need a time of focused heart examination because sin – whose property is always to destroy and separate – will steadily suck our spirits dry to the bone. The point of Lent, then, is not to give up chocolate or Cabernet or chips, but to give up sin!”

That’s a tall order. But one I decided to place.

Rarely are we offered a season where we are given the opportunity to clean out our souls like we spring clean our houses. We have been given 40 days to look at all the clutter and all the things that so easily entangle us and keep us from running the race that He has set out for us (Hebrews 12).

During a season where the church universal mourns the execution of 21 Egyptian Christians, we should also mourn how we, in a nation that affords us every freedom, have become lukewarm and unaffected by our faith. There’s nothing worse (Rev. 3:16). We’re unaffected and unmoved and that should become unacceptable during this season of searching our souls.

I am giving some things up starting today. I’m also beginning some new things. I pray for the discipline to continue through this season faithful to my commitments.

Kristin Schell wrote a beautiful post on Lent and what it is and offers up some great resources to if you want to dig deeper this season.

Days of Decrease

Lent To Me