Lenten Pool

There has been heavy snowfall in Edinburgh during the past few days, but the temperature has been a little above freezing, so there is not much accumulation.

But with snow having lain on the ground for four weeks from Christmas until well into January, there is nowhere for this latest deluge to drain away.

The hole that still remains after I removed a broken clothes-pole a few years ago, has once again become full of water. The last time this happened was late in August 2008, after a series of summer rain-storms.

Water is such a crucial component of our lives, yet most of the time we in Scotland take it for granted.

There is rarely too much water, and rarely too little water. We turn on the tap and clear, sparkling water tumbles into the basin. Most of Scotland is not very far from the sea, where we can see the water stretching away from us beyond the curved horizon.

We can only survive without water for a few days. A fit and healthy adult can often last without food for 40 days. During Lent some people commit to Fast for the 40 days of the season. Other people will undertake a 40-day fast at other times.

God's love showers down upon the people of this world unseen, and for many people, un-noticed. They take it for granted, a bit like we take water for granted.

Water is easier to see than the love of God. But both of them are essential to life.

Water is the medium in which our bodies live and thrive. But eventually a day will come when our bodies run out of life, no matter how much water is provided.

But God's love takes us beyond the valley of death into the eternal life in which God himself resides.

Take a deep draft of the love of God today, and submerge yourself in the life of God, today, for life, for always.

Lenten Resolution

Self-discipline is not one of my strongest abilities.

Too often I do what I want to do, rather than what I ought to do, or what I agreed I would do, or even what I decided to do. That's why I haven't managed to keep up with my plan of posting a Lenten Reflection every day of the 40 days of Lent.

It's a heart problem. Not with my biological heart, but with my spiritual heart. Me comes first too often - in fact, 'me' should never come first. Jesus should always come first.

But us humans are weak, sinful creatures. We can't even manage to live the way we want to live, far less managing to live the way God wants us to live.

The prophet Jeremiah told the people that one day God would write his ways of living onto our hearts, our spiritual hearts. By this Jeremiah meant that God would renew our spiritual hearts so that we would want to be the people he wants us to be. (Jeremiah 31:25-34)

More than that, God offers to become part of our lives by the Holy Spirit within us. (John 14:15-25)

Lent is a good time of year to let God write on your heart, and come into your life. Why not ask him to get started right now?

Dust to Dust

At the start of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, some Christians take part in a ceremony in which Ash is used to mark a Cross on their forehead.

It can remind us that we are nothing compared with God.
It can remind us that our body is made from the dust of the Earth and that one day it will return to dust.

When the disciples went to the tomb to honour the body of Jesus, it was gone.
Later they met Jesus. They spoke and ate with him. He was clothed in his new resurrection body.

Psalm 90 reminds us that our time on Earth can be short.
A thousand years of our time are to God like one day, like yesterday - already gone, like a short hour to the watchman in the night.

Typically we might live as long as 70 years, or maybe even 80 years.
But also, life can be cut short unexpectedly.

The psalmist asks God to teach us how short our life is so that we might become wise. He asks that God would fill us with his constant love, so that we might sing and be glad all our life.

O Lord, you have always been our home.
Before you created the hills, the world, the universe, you were eternally God, and you will be God for ever.

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday - not the weekly day for emptying the ashcan, but the start of the annual Christian season of Lent.

Forty Days leading up to Easter, not including the Sundays, which are Feast Days.

I wonder if you are planning to Fast during Lent. Will you change anything in your life, for the duration of this season, to help you come closer to God, to understand better his plan and purpose for your life.

Lent lasts until Easter Sunday on April 4th.

I haven't yet decided what I will change in my life, but I think I will be doing something, or maybe not doing something!

Feel free to share with us what changes you are considering, planning, or even doing.

Last year's Lenten projects were a real adventure.
If you are doing a Lenten project this year then I would be pleased to hear of it.

I'm not sure if it appropriate to bid people 'Happy Lent', but I pray that God will speak to you during this season of Lent, and that you will know his love, joy and peace, and happiness!

Happy Lent!