Lent

So it is again the season of Lent. To fast and sacrifice for forty days, to surrender to voluntary weakness. It was not until a couple of years ago that I had even heard of Lent because the church tradition that I have grown up in never participated in it, or metioned it as an important part of the Church calendar. Through a friend in high school, I learned, briefly, about the concept and thought I would give it a try. Since then, lent has become a special time in my year that I intentionally turn to God and ask what I can do to draw nearer to him and prepare my heart for Easter.

Last year I wanted to practice the spiritual discipline of fasting for the first time in my life. So, every Wednesday I fasted from food, and though I experienced much temptation (especially because I was on tour and everywhere we went, people wanted to bless us with the ministry of hospitality and good food), it was a time that God placed a hunger in my heart for far more than food - but rather a hunger and thirst for His presence and for getting closer to my Heavenly Father. Last Lent season marked the beginning of a desire to live a lifestyle of fasting and prayer unto the glory and praise of God, and it has been an incredible journey that I want to continue on for the rest of my days.

I do not want Lent to simply be a forty-day period of committment, dedication and sacrifice to God, a static season of will-power, but rather a foundational and transformational moment in time that draws me closer to the things of God and effects who I am as a radical follower of Jesus Christ.

So, thinking about Lent this year, I went to the Lord and asked him about an area in my life that needs to be transformed and touched with his love. The issue of fundraising came up immediately. I am new to the minsitry of fundraising as part of serving God with the postion that he has given me as a full-time camp director, and very clearly, I see that there are a lot of things wrong with my conceptions, expectations and attitudes towards the work of fundraising. This has been a huge issue the last couple of weeks, and so I have decided to focus on the spiritual discipline of fundraising for the the next forty days and then see how that continues on for the rest of my life.

I pray about a lot of things, but never fundraising, so everyday for lent, an hour a morning is going to be spent on praying about fundraising and for God to speak to me about his heart on this subject. I will keep you posted!