How can we use pre Lent and actual Lent as a gateway for long term change? Oftentimes I want to practice something for Lent, and so keep it for good, but it can sound to some as just for Lent, right? So we don’t want to fall back to how things were before, right? We want to, we want to make enduring change.
Yeah. Well, in the Western tradition, there’s this beautiful teaching from St. Thomas Aquinas, who says, you know, to have holiness, you have to want it, you know, you have to desire it and, all of these great things that we practice during Lent at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves, do we really want it?
Do I really want to be exemplary, or do I want to be mediocre? So it’s just renewing your mind by asking yourself that question: do I want to maintain the pace and cadence that I’ve acquired over the past 40 days? And you look at yourself and you’re in a great spiritual and physical position after a vigorous Lent, and just ask yourself that question.
It all begins in the mind, you know, do I want this? Do I want to maintain this great pace that I’ve set? So I think it’s not an external thing you have to do. It’s renewing your mind. Do I want this? Going forward – do I want to be a saint? What kind of person do I want to be in my family?
And to be that kind of saint in the household, I have to keep this habit that I’ve acquired. During Lent, I worked hard for the past 40 days and I’m in a good spot. Do I want to throw it out the window? So it’s not a question of externals for me. It’s just a question of internals, of your mindset, having the mind of Christ.
I just jump in really practically, Jared, and you may have already been ready to do this, but, this question of like, “how do we live the Easter season” is just one of the most interesting questions because it’s longer than Lent. If you just consider it as a kind of a 40 day concept without the pre Lenten journey, but it’s 50 days, you know, how do you celebrate and enter into the resurrected life, you know, to which we’re called?
So I would just say, I forget the name of the questioner here, but I’m obsessed with this question. As a team, we’re obsessed with this question. And we don’t look at our work at Exodus as just this, you know, this thing that’s just all about gripping, you know, just doing hard things, you know, to do hard things.
Not that that’s bad, but, but it’s more about entering into the life of the Christian as it’s always been understood. You know, elements and seasons of fasting, of the rigors of Lent, pre-Lent, but also entering into true celebration and Christian feasting. And so I would just say, join us, you know, for Lent if you’re not already journeying with us, but we’re going to continue our journey in ongoing formation into the Easter season in special way this year.
So just follow along.
