When I was a kid, every year at just about this time, we'd ask each other, "What are you going to give up for Lent?" Invariably our answers identified some form of confection - usually chocolate. It just seemed the thing to do, I guess, because no one ever discussed what it was all about. During Lent you were "just s'posed ta'." If pressed, it's just possible someone might have said that Lent was about making sacrifices or something, but I don't recall why.

Well, the point of Lent is not to give something up in order to lose weight, feel deprived, self-righteous, or suffer. The point of Lent is to draw closer to God - to Jesus - and to the kind of life that follows His lead. That's why giving something up is far less on target than taking something on. By "taking something on" I mean taking on some discipline connected with the goal of drawing closer to God, relying on His Spirit more actively, or following Christ more closely in our daily lives. A discipline is any practice that helps a disciple to better learn from or follow his or her teacher. Experience teaches that it's best to start by adopting a simple discipline that a person actually enjoys - one that will directly help draw us closer to God.

Over and over again, history shows that it's better at the start to adopt a spiritual discipline with company, that is, with others - so that we can encourage each other to stick with it. The ancient Jews adopted the discipline of studying the Torah in small groups. The early Christians adopted the discipline of meeting regularly to hear the Apostles' teaching, break bread together, pray and enjoy fellowship. The medieval monastics adopted the discipline of worship several times daily. The converts of the Wesleyan revivals met in societies or classes for Bible reading, personal sharing, prayer and good works. Quakers adopted the discipline of meeting together in silence to listen for God. And those who follow a "twelve-step" program adopt the discipline of gathering together to honestly encourage each other's progress in the steps to overcome their addictions.

Whenever significant spiritual growth has taken place, it has resulted from groups of people helping each other to adopt and stick with a discipline. While it's not the only discipline you might consider, that's the point of Wednesday Night Live. It's people meeting together once each week for food, fellowship, song and prayer with some opportunity for study - to help us grow closer to God and to better follow His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Consider adopting it or some other discipline this Lent.

In Christ,
Phil +