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Some years, I am very intentional about how I will grow closer to Jesus during the Lenten season.
I make elaborate plans about what I will fast from and which devotionals I will read. Perhaps the memories of celebrating Lent during my Catholic school days impress me with the importance of being satisfied with less, so that Jesus can be more.
But this year, I decided to just stick with my regular devotional routine. I am always wanting to grow closer to Jesus, and I didn’t have the time to plan out something extra.
The Lord had other plans.
I began reading Jackie Hill Perry’s devotional book, “Upon Waking,” in January, but I didn’t really get into it until Lent.
She writes, “In His incarnation, Jesus became just as needy and dependent as we are. We all fight so hard to not be vulnerable in this way. What’s interesting about it all is that the projection of needlessness is, in essence, the mimicking of deity. An attempt to be seen as a god, without needs.”
A growing conviction of my own self-sufficiency was immediately followed by circumstances that proved that it had been an allusion all along.
Responsibilities piled up. Sicknesses weighed my family down. And I found myself fasting from myself. Acknowledging my own need helped me see the needs of others in sharper contrast.
In his prophecy about Jesus, Isaiah wrote, “He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He took on neediness on purpose, because of His compassion and love for us.
During Lent, our Sunday School worshiped the Lord by singing Keith and Kristyn Getty’s song “Rejoice.” It is a wonderful song, bringing Philippians 4 to the forefront of worship time. However, as I looked out over the room full of children, there were no smiles. How could I encourage them to sing about rejoicing when they were broken, defeated, and hurting?
We were all accidentally celebrating Lent. I was fasting from self, and they were fasting from food, their parents, safety, having a home, or from joy. They are children of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and Jesus’s love and compassion for them overwhelmed me.
And we sang, “Throughout every season, I am sure, we have every reason to praise the Lord.”
In the sorrow of our accidental Lent, we had forgotten the main truth of Jesus’s on-purpose resurrection. He died and rose again to conquer sorrow, sickness, and death. We can have joy even in somber circumstances because of Who Jesus is and all that He has done.
In our accidental Lent, we continued to sing, “Rejoice in the Lord now and always. Tell of the good He has done. Worship the Lord to remember all of the joy yet to come. The hope that burns within us, the dark cannot destroy. With praise that’s never ending, we say again rejoice.”
We have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. Hallelujah! He is risen! We can rejoice- on purpose.
Sarah Dixon Young 