The Might Month of March!

Where I pastor ww are just wrapping up a series of sermons called, "The All-America Month of February." It was kind of a tongue a cheek series. Obviously a month with record snow falls and cold temps doesn't evoke images of American greatness...well not quite like July does. It does however have several holidays that are uniquely American, but perhaps are not thought of as holidays, i.e Super Bowl Sunday, Ground Hog day, and Presidents day. Along with tying together the biblical theme togetherness we also explored the theme of the other. Being that it was Black History Month we also covered some of America's greatest Black historical figures. I think it went well. I had fun planning, preparing and delivering these sermons. Next up is March!

There's no catchy theme for March because for me March will be a very busy month, but also because this year March contains the early part of Lent. Growing up in a Pentecostal church we had little to no Lent, but plenty of lint...ha ha ha. Really though, I never recall hearing anything about Lent other than it was a Catholic thing and there for must be bad. Little did I know that Lent was a time of growth, reflection, introspect and reconcilliation. Lent is a truly blessed time of simplicity and un-indulgence.

I discovered Lent as a wayward, back sliden, recovering fundamentalist and pentecostal via the Episcopal Church. At that point in my life I was ready to embrace any form of Christianity that did not resembled the form of which I knew, i.e Pentecostalism. It was explained to me by a very wise, old, and country Priest that Lent was a time of repentance and reflection, used to help prepare us for the joy of the resurrection and the new life in Jesus. In away the relationship that Lent has to easter is very similar to the relationship that our earthly lives have to our eternal lives, it prepares us.

This year I'll start it all off with ashes, but hopefully I'll be more intentional about engaging in prayer and end up with a better understanding of God. I will fast and abstain and all those other Methodist things, but I also want to add, to do more, read more, pray more, give more, so that this time of reflection is not simply about not eating donuts or drinking diet coke or not logging on to Facebook or not txting while driving, but is about growing and becoming something new.

Lent is a gift. A chance to look inside and reflect on what we are and where we are going and if we find out that we are not what God is calling us to be or we find that we are heading down the wrong path, come the last Friday in Lent we can rally at the cross and be reborn on Sunday! So this Lent embrace the the time to reflect, to look inside and enjoy the mighty month of March.