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What to say? I was not raised in a church which recognized nor practiced Lent. It wasn’t until my adult years, and well into my adult years, I found myself wondering if there was more to Lent than I had realized. There were some years I gave up something. Some years I did nothing at all. In each of those times, I learned and grew, solely by God’s grace.

It was with great interest that I read this post and felt compelled to send it to each of my children and ask them if they wanted to join me this Lenten season in this challenge. The reading guide sits printed on my desk waiting the start of Lent, next Wednesday, March 5th. I am excited to think we will journey and read the entire New Testament in 40 days.

But God began to stir in my heart and I knew it was coming – He was going to require more. More than the reading challenge. He was going to require sacrifice. This was going to be a year of active participation in the Lenten season.

Lent is a fast of sorts. A giving up of something to gain what is more needed, more necessary. This morning I remembered having read this and grabbed the book off my shelf to read it once again….

Jesus himself knew that when we have learned how to fast “in secret”, our bodies and our souls will be directly sustained by the invisible kingdom. We will not be miserable. But we certainly will be different. And our abundant strength and our joy will come in ways a purely physical human existence in “the flesh” does not know. It will come from those sources that “are in secret”.
(from the book, The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, page 196)

LoveIdol_FC_Endorsement_101413This week, the pieces of my own journey for the Lenten Season began to fall into place. Jennifer Dukes Lee is going on a deeper Lenten journey and is inviting as many as would choose to join her. She has written a book which will be released on April 1 (how special my son’s birthday!). You can read all about it in this post in which she shares the news. She is going to challenge and shake up our lives in the days ahead as she shares from her own life.

Like her Facebook page – The Love Idol Movement – too. There are some wonderful printables and resources there.

And so, I am now finding myself preparing for my Lenten journey which I will share about more next Wednesday on the day it begins. My hope is that you will come back, not only to read about it, but to perhaps join Margaret and Jennifer and so many others and start your own journey as well. My prayer is that we will be different after 40 days of reading and sacrifice and that this Resurrection Day will have greater meaning.

I am joining with … Thought Provoking Thurs. and Winsome Wed. and Thurs. Favorite Things and Thriving Thurs. and Cozy Reading Spot and New Every Morning and Quitting Thurs. .