Astonishingly it's almost spring in South Delta, even though it snowed on Sunday! One of the wonderful things about spring is that, in the church, we are celebrating a season called "Lent."
The season is about more than pancakes, more than giving up chocolate and offering boxes for "the poor" - it's all about learning to follow Jesus.
This Lent we are on a journey following Jesus as he ventures into the wilderness. It is a time to reflect on, and stand up to, the injustices in society, carrying the Light of Christ into the very darkest corners of our lives.
Our hope is to re-ignite a fire of love and justice in human hearts around us.
I have to tell you that saying, "No thank you," to a second helping of dessert takes very little effort by comparison. Lent then is a time for transformation - for our own hearts and the hearts of the world around us.
It is necessary because as we prepare ourselves for a "resurrection" life with Christ, we need to make the old new and the darkness turned into light: this is what it means to enter the wilderness. This is what Lent is all about.
So the question of Lent is not what we should give up, but rather what are we going to embrace as a new journey through the wilderness with Jesus? We go in with no guarantees except for just one - as certainly as we go, Christ comes with us.
