By Jane Jefferies
For me, growing up Baptist meant that Lent was something that happened in other churches. Most of my friends were hunting something to give up that would have as little impact as possible on their lives--like turnip greens. Now we talk of adding something instead of sacrificing something. Perhaps either of these can lead to a new relationship and understanding of God.
When my son was in high school, I found myself spending more and more of my time as caregiver to my parents, my brother, and my aunt. I spent hours, days, weeks with them in hospitals and doctors' offices or just helping with daily chores. People might say I had given up the freedom to do what I wanted. I would say I had added time to know each of these people as adults. I benefited from wisdom that I was now willing to hear. I learned what they feared and what they had overcome. I was showered with love.
Spending time doing something for God can reveal to you who He is and how much He loves you. After all, He sacrificed so much in order to show Himself to you. Take the time to look.
"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men."-Philippians 2:5-7
