Walking in the Light
Kindle Direct 2021
Walking in the Light is a group or individual study for the season of Lent. Each session include scripture, reflection, discussion questions and prayer. Sessions include Ash Wednesday, each week of Lent, and the days of Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Here is an excerpt
On Ash Wednesday we enter the season of Lent—a time of reflection, repentance and renewal, a time to prepare ourselves spiritually for what we know lies ahead. Before we can walk in the light, we must prepare our hearts and our souls for the journey. We begin by acknowledging our struggles with life in this world. We begin by admitting that even though we try, we seldom live the life that our God hopes for us.
On this day, we receive a mark of ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our desire to live a better life and as a sign of God’s grace. Someone suggested that on Ash Wednesday we receive a physical smudge of ashes on our foreheads that is symbolic of the spiritual smudge our sinfulness leaves on our souls.
We are called into this season of Lent because we are ALL sinners. We have ALL been less than we could be, and despite God’s best efforts to lead us, we have drifted too far from our God. We need to get back on track. We need to repent, to turn around, to turn away from things that separate us from God and turn toward the Lord.
Don’t be confused about who is being called to repent. This call to repentance is for us. This call to repentance is for the faithful. We may say, wait a minute, there are lots of worse sinners in the world than us. After all, we are here working at our faith and trying to live a good life. What about all those others out there doing terrible things? Some following false Gods. Some following no God at all. Too many living hurtful and shameful lives. Why should we be called to repent when others, far worse than us, are out there doing “God knows what”?
If you say this, you have a point. There are far worse sinners in the world than us. But this is not a competition. This life we live is not like some television reality show where all you need to do is stay out of the “bottom 3” and you are safe. Nothing about any of that is reality.
We need to do more than just be good enough to make the cut. We are trying to live into the life that God imagined for us when God breathed life into us and filled us with God’s own hopes for our future.
God wants more for us than these lives we are living. God wants more for us than lives that only scratch the surface of what they could be. This call to repentance is about living a better life. God is trying to tell us that our sinfulness keeps us from living that life. The word sin in archery means to miss the target. Our sin makes us miss God’s target. Our sin keeps us from being the people God created us to be. Our sin keeps us from living our best life.
