Bread of Life: Looking forward to Lent

Our church asked its members to submit short devotionals for Lent. Our focus is on the "I Am" sayings in the gospel of John. This is my submission. 

I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35

I didn’t grow up celebrating Lent, my church focused on the resurrection at Easter. In my early twenties, when I joined the Methodist church, one year I decided that for Lent I would give up my afternoon candy habit. It seemed like a good little luxury to give up and if I lost a couple pounds, all the better! As you can imagine, this was a time of deep spiritual growth and repentance. I recall that I eventually amended that fast to just workdays. After all, weekends don’t count. I felt very proud of myself come Easter morning – I had fasted from a luxury for 40 days(ish) and isn’t that what Lent is all about?

Pastor Wiley recently preached on reading your Bible on a regular basis. That’s the spiritual nourishment that Christ is urging upon his followers. When we fast from something material it’s important to fill up our souls with the spiritual. Like Advent, Lent is an opportunity to look forward to the fulfillment of a promise of salvation. It is a time to experience darkness and the coming of the light. Since that year when I successfully managed to avoid the office candy bowl for forty days I’ve often skipped giving up something altogether. How could I possibly put together a goal that lived up to the deep call of Lent? My admitted lack of commitment to Lent in the past means that I’ve no stones to throw at anyone’s definition of fasting. I’ve squandered the opportunity to seek spiritual nourishment, to take in the Flesh and the Blood, to prepare for the overwhelming Easter experience of Christ risen from the Dead by God’s all-powerful Love. Can I say that I’m continually striving for perfection as John Wesley preached?

I continue to wrestle with the Lenten experience and how best to strive for the Bread of Life. Thankfully, Lent comes at the time of the year when my husband and I have to take stock of our lives and make decisions for the coming school year. We discuss all our options and last year, fittingly just after Easter, we decided to expand our family. We didn’t look at these issues because it was Lent, but this year I want to be intentional about this season. I want to take Lent and delve into scripture, let the Word and the Bread be our guides as we again seek the right path for our family. Christ will not let us hunger and thirst and when we seek Him he will lead us forward with purpose and direction, just as he led the disciples.