Easter is early this year, which means that Lent of course starts early too! Ash Wednesday is on 18 February, just over a week away.
How might you spend this time leading up to Easter? Feel daunted by the traditional approach of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving? Lent can be a time for those practices, of course, but God is pleased with any and all of the ways we seek to draw close to him.
I have some resources for you to help.
• Tomorrow (11 February) I’ll be on Premier Christian Radio at 11am (UK time) for an hour discussing with Mal Pope some strategies for staying close to God during Lent.
• On Saturday 21 February, I’ll be leading an online retreat sponsored by Coracle on Friendship with God, looking at the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus with Jesus. So much of the key events of their story in the gospels comes during Lent, and I trust you’ll be encouraged. You can find my full exploration in my book Transforming Love.
• My book The Living Cross is a through-the-Bible look at forgiveness, half in the Old Testament and half in the new. I’ll be giving away a copy of this book with my next newsletter.
• The Prayers of Jesus is a small-group course that explores 6 of the 7 prayers of Jesus recorded in the gospels. So many of these occur during Lent. There’s a prayer exercise included for each week.
• The online course for the above is a great resource as I so enjoyed my conversations with the amazing Micah Jazz, who has now gone to glory. Wow – I think this is now free!
Soon we’ll be entering Holy Week, when those who follow Jesus join in, again, with the events of the shaping story of our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
You might feel that you’ve fallen short or failed in what you hoped to do/read/observe during this season of Lent. For me, the Lenten book I ordered never arrived; I’ve waited and hoped that it would come while reading the first week, kindly made available by the author to those of us who decided at the last minute to use her resource.
But in God’s kingdom it’s not too late. He welcomes us to enter into the story fully, whether we’ve been able to be faithful or not. He sparks the desire within us and gives it the oxygen and fuel to help it burn brightly.
I welcome you to enter into the story this Holy Week with wonder and sorrow. One way to do so is through praying through the events of the week as they happen. I share a guide to do so in the linked article, written for my lovely friends at BRF, the publisher of my forthcoming book in November with my dad’s art (which will be perfect for next Lent!), Holding onto Hope.
May you receive from God exactly what he has just for you in the coming week as we journey to the cross and the resurrection.
I received a question about Lent resources last week:
I am hoping to have a women’s Lent group and wondered if you could recommend a book to follow?
My answer:
I wonder if your women’s group would like my little resource The Prayers of Jesus? It explores 6 of Jesus’ 7 prayers from the gospels, which is fab for Lent because as you know they culminate in Gethsemane and on the cross. I did a video series for it with introductions, a prayer exercise and a conversation with the very interesting Micha Jazz. There are meeting-starter ideas, the session content, discussion questions, and ideas for leading a prayer exercise. Perhaps this could be adaptable for your group? No worries if not. With the cost-of-living shooting upwards, the latest print run got expensive for a little paperback – £7.99, discounted.
For a Lent book if your group is happy to read a bit more, I love Walter Wangerin’s Reliving the Passion. (My review from years ago in Woman Alive is here.) Or my daily readings of The Living Cross, a through-the-Bible look at forgiveness.
Need ideas for how to have a good Lent? Here’s an article I wrote a few years ago.
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved
As we draw near to Holy Week, when we remember Jesus’
passion – his death and resurrection – I offer you this painting by my father
for you to ponder and consider.
What strikes you in it?
What can you do today to get your heart ready to remember?
Briton Rivière (1840–1920), The Temptation in the Wilderness; (c) City of London Corporation; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
As one who grew up in a church that uses set prayers in its services and observes seasons and rituals, I’ve known the season of Lent from my childhood. For me it’s an important time to prepare myself for Jesus’ death and resurrection; it’s a yearly reminder of my sins, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and God’s amazing grace in the gift of forgiveness and new life.
But I know that not all Christians love Lent. Some may be concerned about empty ritual, or believers engaging in unnecessary penance when Jesus has paid the price on the cross once and for all. Yet the benefits of a time set apart to examine myself before God have outweighed the potential pitfalls, and so I’d like to offer up some ideas for Lent as a way to deepen our love for and commitment to God. And as I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember, these suggestions are based on words – and the Word. Following are some practices you can enact during Lent.
Focus on one book of the Bible
Lent is made up of 40 days (excluding Sundays), so it’s a wonderful time to hone in on one of the books of the Bible. Why not choose an Old Testament prophet, such as Isaiah, which is rich in foreshadowing our Saviour? With Isaiah’s 66 chapters, you could read one chapter on Mondays to Fridays, and then two-three chapters on each day of the weekend. Or a gospel makes prime reading in Lent as it helps us focus on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Many Christians also add praying through one of the Psalms daily.
Add a practice of giving or forgiving
Many people see Lent as a time of fasting or taking away, but we’ve seen through the #40acts movement how we can add a practice to prepare for Easter. Through committing to 40 acts of generosity – things such as giving away chocolate or supporting the Fairtrade movement – Christians embrace the joy of giving as rooted in God’s gift of his son, Jesus.
Along with giving, we can embrace more forgiving. I was reminded of this recently when a long-time disciple of Christ, a woman who has seen heartache and pain but whose heart remains tender, said, ‘We can always forgive a little bit more.’ She and I were talking about my book, The Living Cross: Exploring God’s Gift of Forgiveness and New Life (BRF, 2016), which engages with readings from the Old Testament and the New on the theme of forgiveness (more on it below). Her words struck me as so wise, for in this fallen world where we experience disappointment, betrayal and pain, we need a regular practice of forgiveness to keep us from becoming bitter and lacking hope.
Why not commit to daily forgiveness? I’m not suggesting we go digging for unconfessed sins, or for people to forgive whom we haven’t considered for decades, but we can trust that the Holy Spirit will lead us in a sort of spring cleaning of the soul. Forgiveness is freeing – we’ll approach the resurrection of Jesus with a new sense of joy if we’ve been able to release the pain that may weigh us down.
Meet with fellow Christians
Lent is a wonderful time to meet with others while reading and discussing Christian resources. One year our church engaged in the E100 Challenge as produced by Scripture Union. I begrudgingly gave up my own programme of Bible reading to join in, and I was so glad that I did. Each week we’d share our thoughts and new understanding, and we’d also be encouraged by what others gained through the experience. I saw new things about the Bible as a whole from this programme.
There are many resources to choose from, which leads me to my final point…
Read a book
Why not read a book specially prepared for Lent? I mentioned mine, The Living Cross, about which Catherine Campbell has said,
A Lenten journey you won’t want to miss. From the Fall to the Cross and beyond, Amy Boucher Pye walks us down the centuries to meet the One she calls the “Father of outstretched arms.” With captivating writing and inspiring biblical insight, we are reassured from the stories of fallen heroes, fallible leaders and plain ordinary sinners that God’s lavish forgiveness is available to each one of us. The more I read the more excited I became, and the more thankful I am for God’s “scandalous grace and love poured out.” Simply superb. I can’t wait to read it again!
I learned so much about forgiveness while writing this book, including how in the Old Testament, people didn’t assume they could forgive others – for them, forgiveness came from God. But with the death of Jesus, we now can not only of receive forgiveness from God, but others as well – and we can extend it ourselves.
My favourite Lenten book is Reliving the Passion by Walter Wangerin (Zondervan, 1992). He’s a master storyteller, and writes here as a participant in the passion events. He transports us to a vivid world of sights and smells that bring the story alive, engaging our heads and our hearts. I can’t recommend this book enough.
Whether you manage to engage in a new practice each day in Lent, or not quite as regularly, I trust the Lord will help you to draw closer to him in your journey. As we approach the celebration of the resurrection, I pray that you will feel the joy of know that Christ is risen – indeed, he is risen!
Jesus fulfills the prophecies of Isaiah. He came to bring mercy, not judgment. May we know his mercy this day, that we might receive the eternal life he speaks of.
I love this passage, filled with so many thought-provoking words of Jesus. So many songs have been inspired here – “We Want to See Jesus”; “Walk in the Light”; and the one about the kernel of wheat that Russ Taff sings that I can’t place just now! (Help me out if you can!) Thought for the day – become children of light…
From a 1684 Arabic manuscript of the Gospels, copied in Egypt by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib (likely a Coptic monk). In the collection of The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland. Creative Commons license.
Mary anoints Jesus with nard, pouring out her love to him in an act of devotion. Her profession of love met with persecution, however, as the religious leaders keep on with their campaign to eradicate Jesus and now Lazarus too.
Focus on one book of the Bible
Add a practice of giving or forgiving
Read a book
