Get Ready!

Have you ever waited until the last minute to get ready for something? It seems like every trip we take as a family, I wait until the day (or the evening) before to start packing. I've even done this on international trips...which does not make for a stress-free departure! I always vow I won't do that again...until the next time...

When we're getting ready to take a journey, it's important to take time to prepare, to pack, to make sure you have what you need for the trip. Some people use a checklist, others use an app, and others "fly by the seat of their pants," but however you do it, it's important to prepare. (From personal experience, I can tell you that if you tend to fly by the seat of your pants, it's good to be married to one of those list-makers!)

Tomorrow we begin a journey together—a journey through the season of Lent, a journey toward the cross. It's not an easy journey, even though it's one we make every year. (In some ways, I think it gets harder every year...because we're more aware of the cost of Jesus' sacrifice.) But the church, early on, realized we need a time set aside to prepare our hearts for what we will encounter when we get to Calvary, and so forty days were set aside as a time to prepare, to remove obstacles in our lives, to draw nearer to Jesus through spiritual disciplines and worship.

And, in time, it became obvious we even need time to prepare for that journey of preparation! So today, Fat or Shrove Tuesday, became a day to clear houses and lives of "extras" so that we're prepared for the "fasting" of Lent. "Shrove" comes from the word "shrive," which means "confess." This day is a day of confession, of ridding our lives of any known sins. And the day also became known as "Fat" Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French) because families would remove the richer, fattier foods from their homes to prepare for a leaner, fasting season of Lent (also why the last of the "lard" or "fat" would be used to make pancakes, a traditional meal on this day).

Some of the traditions of the past may seem quaint, even ridiculous, to some of us today. But let me ask you: how will you prepare to go to the cross? How will you get ready? Whatever else you might think about Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ, and whatever inaccuracies might have been in it, one thing it did for many people (including myself) is remind us that the cross was not a nice, clean, neat event. It was brutal, bloody, horrible, awful...and innumerable other words just like that. It wasn't something you sing hymns about; it was something you recoil from. Can it be...that God loves us that much? To walk that road, to go with Jesus to the cross, we need to prepare ourselves. We need to get ready.

So...how will you get ready for this Lenten season?

"In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3).

Happy packing!