Monthly Archives: February 2020

WHAT IS LENT? (Not Lint!)

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Even though most readers know about Lent, since it begins this Wednesday I want to highlight some basics about it in this post. Called the Lenten tradition, Lent is a 40-day season in which Christians focus on their faith as they look forward to and prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Often associated with Roman Catholic tradition and practice, Lent is certainly not limited to Catholicism as many believers in a variety of denominations and churches participate. While much of what takes place during Lent has biblical connections, the actual Lenten season is not prescribed in the New Testament. As meaningful as observing Lent can be and is for many Christians, not all observe it nor are they commanded to do so.

The first mention of the practice of Lent is found in the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. The celebration of Easter Sunday and Jesus’ resurrection, however, began much earlier. The emphasis upon 40 days comes from the biblical account of Jesus’ fast in the wilderness following his baptism. The time between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday is actually more than 40 days, but Sundays are not counted – Sundays are feast days because Sunday is the day of Jesus’ resurrection.

Ash Wednesday and the marking of Christians with an ashen cross was added in the 600s. The usage of ashes underscores human mortality and our need for repentance. Participation in Ash Wednesday is not required in order to participate in the Lenten season. There is no one way to observe Lent as Christians have celebrated the season in a variety of ways.

Simply stated, engaging in Lent is a season of intentional focus on reflection, repentance, prayer, Bible reading, confession, humility, and devotion in anticipation of remembering, acknowledging, and celebrating Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

Many believers also include fasting as a part of their expression of devotion during this season. Fasting usually refers to eating and food, but is not limited to food. Nor is fasting in terms of eating always a total fast from food. People have fasted from meat, desserts, coffee, soda, and a variety of choices for a day, a week, or the entire period of Lent. Beyond food and drink, some fast from TV, radio, the news, or other activities that they set aside or give up to focus on the season.

Through the years I’ve tried a lot of things during this season to focus and enhance my faith and devotion. Some have been more helpful than others. I’m look forward to beginning tomorrow a book of readings entitled TO SEEK AND TO SAVE: DAILY REFLECTIONS ON THE ROAD TO THE CROSS by Sinclair B. Ferguson. I hope these thoughts have been informative and encouraging.

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DELIGHT, DELIGHTFUL, AND DELIGHTED

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A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to do something I rarely get to do. Jan and I stayed with our six year old grandson while his mom took his older brother to one of his commitments. For some reason Ryan was into grandpa this early evening. We sat on the couch together and I fed him while we watched Scooby Doo.

After he had eaten, he snuggled up to me and we gave all our attention to the gang and the Mystery Machine as they solved the mystery. Later when his mom and brother returned she asked how things went. My response was, “It was delightful!” And I then explained why it was delightful.

Since then I’ve been thinking about this trio of related words delight, delightful, and delighted. And to my surprise, I have noticed other people using the words that I hadn’t noticed before. Think about the three words delight, delightful, and delighted – pleasant and positive, aren’t they?

So I looked up the definitions. As a verb delight means “to please greatly” and as a noun “great pleasure.” Delightful means “causing delight, very pleasant, lovely, and greatly to one’s liking.” Synonyms include congenial, enjoyable, pleasing, and what I meant when I said my grandson was delightful: darling. A short definition of delighted is “feeling or showing great pleasure.”

After looking up the definitions I remembered a verse from the Bible that used the word delight. I looked the word up on biblegateway.com and I was partially right. Delight and delights are used not just once, however, but 105 times in the Bible; 91 of which are in the Old Testament!

Many of those verses point us in the direction of things in which we should delight and things in which we should not delight. Two of my favorites are Proverbs 10:23, “A fool finds pleasure in wicked schemes, but a person of understanding delights in wisdom,” and Proverbs 18:2, “Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.”

The verse I remembered that used the word delight is Psalm 37:4 that declares, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” That isn’t a promise that if we delight in the LORD we will always get what we want, but that delighting in the LORD is a challenge filled with God’s promises. I’ll leave it up to you to give some thought to what is involved in “delighting in the LORD.”

In reading the verses in Proverbs I was encouraged by two that tell us that God delights in us (see Proverbs 11:20 and 12:22). My summary take on these two verses is that God delights in us when we follow his ways. And perhaps following his ways is one way we delight in him.

I’m challenged and encouraged to delight more in my life, to be delightful to others more often, and to be delighted as much as possible. Perhaps you too are challenged and encouraged as well.

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HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?

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The question asked in the title of this post is not specific and could refer to any number of things. It could concern knowledge of a person, a subject, something that happened, a plan, or pretty much anything.

In the last chapter of a book I recently finished the author noted something about himself that got my attention. In words that expressed both wisdom and humility, he told his readers “I learned long ago how much I do not know.” How interesting!

The wording of his acknowledgement is somewhat of an oxymoron because he learned how much he did not know. Usually when we use the word learn it points to something we did not know we now do. It sounds strange, but the point is that we can and should learn what we do not know.

Learning and knowing how much we don’t know seems to me to be an important thing to learn, but is harder for some than others. The learning process seems to take place as the years pass. Experience is a great teacher, and sometimes it teaches us what we don’t know that we thought we did.

I still remember a comment a class member made to me over 35 years ago in a Sunday School class I was teaching. Someone asked a question for which I did not have an answer, but I gave one anyway. He wasn’t being critical or mean, but was actually being funny when he responded, “That’s it – If you can’t show ‘em snow ‘em.”

Over the last 33 years I have taught a number of classes in churches, colleges, and a high school. I have fielded numerous questions about many things in the Bible and Christianity. And I have answered many of them. However, the answer I think I have given the most is “I don’t know.”

Although I do sometimes apologize for not knowing, I don’t think we have to be embarrassed to admit that we do not know something.

I’m confident most readers of this post have learned how much they don’t know. Realizing we know to a degree how much we don’t know is comforting, but that is no reason to quit learning things we would like to know.

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A WORD OF CAUTION, A WORD OF CHALLENGE, AND A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT

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In my reading the last several days I have come across several thoughts and observations from a variety of authors that have impacted me. In this post I want to pass on to readers three of the things that struck me.

The word of caution that grabbed me is from Pastor J.A. Medders and his observation, “One of the greatest dangers of studious Christians is loving the study of God more than God himself.” Certainly we are to study the Bible and what scholars and others have written about God and his revelation, but Medders points out the danger of getting so caught up in studying and increasing our knowledge that we forget the primary purpose of learning.

Medders cautions about what he calls “theological trophy hunting” in which some “read the Bible to get more verses on [their] side . . . so [they] can win an argument, or show how much [they] know.” We must be careful not to be like the Pharisees, who in the words of Professor Bruce Metzger emphasized the WORD of God rather than the word of GOD. Medders’ primary point is that we are not just to love the study of God or books about him, but to love God.

The word of challenge that got my attention is from Psychologist Jeffrey Bernstein concerning our regrets in life. Inspired by something Ralph Waldo Emerson said, Bernstein’s “advice is to accept the fact we all make mistakes, apologize to those we’ve harmed, forgive oneself, and focus on our personal strengths and gratitude rather than regrets from the past.”

The challenge for me is in those two words accept and apologize. I hope none of us will use the observation that “we all make mistakes” to minimize our mistakes because everyone makes them. And of course we should apologize to those we’ve harmed; but more than that, as Christians, many times we should not just apologize, but ask for forgiveness as well—from both those we’ve harmed as well as the Lord. With regard to focusing “on our personal strengths . . . rather than regrets,” my sense is we should not be too hard on ourselves; but acknowledging our personal strengths does not erase our mistakes.

The word of encouragement is three quotes from The Art of Aging by Sherwin B. Nuland. Hopefully, even younger readers will be encouraged as well as those of us who are older. Early in the book Nuland observes, “Used well, an aging brain can become a more useful brain, and often a wiser one” (p.32). Late in his book Nuland states the obvious, “The getting of wisdom is, of course, a process, and it has no end point.” He continues, “The wisdom that we seek with age is not something that comes without effort, nor is it unearned consolation for the passage of years. Rather, it is the result of reflecting” (p. 253).

In reading Nuland’s observations I’m sure you can see how at the age of 68 I am encouraged by what he writes. I think I am using my aging brain well; I also believe I’m still in the process of getting wisdom; and with the continued passage of years I find myself reflecting more and more. No matter what your age, I hope you are encouraged.

I realize this is an out of ordinary blog post, and I thank you for reading it. Let’s all be open to and look for words of caution, words of challenge, and words of encouragement.

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