Read these passages several times over Lent, allowing them to soak deeply into you. A couple of suggestions would be Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Meditate on the Scriptures pertaining to Jesus’ suffering during this time.The point is to be creative and sacrificial doing something that will help you engage in repentance and renewal and align your heart with our suffering saviour. For instance, the traditional fast is to go without food and spend time in prayer, or you could give up TV and instead read a book about the cross. Try giving up something that is a part of your daily/weekly rhythm and replacing it with something that will help you focus on Jesus. Consider doing some form of “fasting” for the 40 days, as a way to enter into and reflect on Christ suffering for you. The 40 days of lent is associated with Christ’s suffering.Here are several ideas to get you started.

I encourage you to not only join us at our Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday services, but to consider some additional ways that you, and maybe your family, can participate in Lent. Lent is a time for us to identify with the suffering of our saviour and to grow in our understanding of why he did suffer on the cross. As we approach this most significant day, it only makes sense that we would enter a season of focused repentance and renewal by remembering what Christ did on the cross. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are the most significant events on the church calendar, and our belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection is the crux of our Christian faith (1 Corinthians 15). Traditionally, it is a time that the church intentionally engages in a period of repentance and renewal as it prepares to celebrate Easter. Lent is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter, celebrated by the Church since at least the 4th century, if not earlier.

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