Some who have grown up in churches full of liturgical practices, are happy to leave them all behind for the simplicity of a personal pursuit of following Jesus. Others who have grown up with no experience of liturgical practices discover unexpected help in adopting some on their journey of following Jesus. In and of themselves, liturgical practices have no power, nor do they gain us extra favor with God. Christ has already done all the work to fully secure us in the grace and love of God for all eternity by taking our sin and giving us his righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Liturgies are simply spiritual habits and rhythms and when they are practiced well, they can increase our awareness of Christ’s constant presence with us and his gifts to us so that we open our hearts to the greatest treasure of all — knowing Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8 NIV)

The 40 days of Lent is a liturgy that has been part of the Church since at least the fourth century. It originally involved fasting for one meal per day, except on Sundays, for the six weeks leading up to celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter. Early believers used the mealtime that was skipped to contemplate Christ’s work for us and over time, the practice changed to include fasting from something you would normally enjoy for the six weeks of lent so that you could focus on the greater joy that comes from the work of Christ for us. Regardless of how or what we choose to fast, the purpose is to help us know and trust Jesus in deeper ways, not to break a bad habit or reach some other goal.

As we move toward our celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection this spring, we invite you to consider these pathways to help you live with greater awareness of Christ’s presence and deeper gratitude for his work for us.

1. Choose some type of fast for the 40 days of Lent. Don’t just give up this food or normal habit of your life, that will leave an emptiness. Replace it with at least a brief time to reflect on Christ’s work for you.

2. Adopt a new habit for the season of Lent that will increase your attention to Jesus. Here are a few helpful examples.

a. For each day of Lent, choose to not look at your phone each day until after you have read Scripture, so that the first thoughts of your day are not your work email, the news or social media, but of God’s thoughts for you.
b. Go for a 2-3 minute walk twice a day and as you walk, thank Jesus for loving you and saving you, thank your Heavenly Father for bringing you into his family and thank the Holy Spirit for helping you live as part of the family of God.
c. Turn your phone off and remove it from your presence for one hour each day. It’s shocking how distracting these always-with-us devices can be and how they can hinder our listening to God and us giving our attention to the people in our presence.

3. Each Wednesday of Lent, an email will be sent to our CAC family with a devotional from members of our transitional pastoral team that reflects on the work of Christ for us. Read and reflect on this sometime during that day so that you do this on the same day every week. The email will also include the Scripture readings for the upcoming week.