Lent.
At House of Prayer, we celebrate the church calendar. That currently brings us to the season of Lent. Lent has historically been a season of being subdued. A time of reflection. A time of contemplation. But what does that mean for us now…today? Let me tell you a story.
I went to Bradenton for Spring Training one year. After I got past the feelings of enormous envy I had for the men/boys on those fields for doing the thing I dreamed of doing, I just started watching. It was really interesting. The are 4 fields all going outward from home plate. So, if you stand behind home, you see all 4 fields. So much activity going on! Pitchers doing cover drills. Guys taking groundballs. Guys shagging fly balls. Batting practice. Running drills. Bullpen sessions. All of them honing theirs skills and getting stronger for the upcoming season.
Can you imagine how things would go if the Pirates decided not to do Spring Training? Or the Penguins or Steelers without Training Camp. Those times of preparation, conditioning, arm building, leg building, play learning, familiarity with your teammates, and return to fundamentals is vital to athletes. But we also probably know that that sort of prep work and training is vital to all aspects of life.
It is most certainly the case with our faith. Those guys at Bradenton weren’t doing much that they didn’t already know. Yet, it is important ever February and March to get back to the fundamentals and basics. To get one’s body strengthened for the long season.
Friends, that’s Lent for you. It is Spring Training for our faith. That’s what the practices of giving things up, or taking more things upon oneself, or changing things is all about.
I invite you to creatively recompose your life over these weeks of Lent so that you may strengthen your souls.