Lent constitutes both a challenge and an embarrassment to Lake Avenue-type Christians. Each year, the season brings the temptation to ignore it. We do not know where we stand because we feel competing claims to truth. On one side, our conscience serves to remind us that (if we are the followers of Jesus we claim to be) we had better “do something” about observing the most sacred season in the Christian calendar. We are reminded further of what we know all too well; namely, that we have walked away from God and need to place ourselves under some kind of spiritual and physical discipline. It would not hurt us to “give up something for Lent.” On the level of personal habits, we could stand a more rugged Christian discipleship.

Furthermore, the world in its own careless way seems to be open to “spiritual things” at Lent. It is a time when the claims of Jesus Christ sometimes are investigated again by an unbelieving world. Publishers issue books of sermons and devotions dealing with the cross of Christ, pastors preach messages on the events surrounding the crucifixion, and a few television networks cater to the seasonal fashion by scheduling “religious” films. To ignore Lent, then, would seem to be almost as wrong as ignoring Christmas. A rich opportunity for making Jesus Christ and his salvation real to the world would be neglected.

On the other hand, a sense of unrest stirs within the evangelical breast, even to the pitch of revolt, at what some have done with Lent in the past. When we see how some have used Lent to manipulate and exploit churchgoers; when we survey the fuss it has raised by drinking and sinning on Fat Tuesday in order to repent on Ash Wednesday; when we consider the way that the church has proclaimed endless rules not rooted in the Bible in its silly “giving up of a small item for Lent”…we are left wondering whether we want to be associated with Lent at all. We want to proclaim that every day is Lent for the Christian who lives every day in the shadow of the cross.

Why, then, shouldn’t evangelical Christians forget about Lent altogether and “stand fast in the freedom with which Christ has made us free”? Such being the situation, we have our choice of the horns of the dilemma. Understandably, there will be a strong temptation to straddle.

We at LAC simply will see the Lenten season as an opportunity to examine our lives and see what is not yet Christ-like about us. We will confess that to God and then begin a period of investigation. We will look at the stories Jesus told on the way to the cross and seek to examine our lives in the light of them.

When we arrive at Good Friday and Easter, we pray that all will be more aware of our need of God’s mercy, more grateful for the gift of God’s grace, and more dependent on the power of the resurrection.

Glory to God,