Rending Your Heart

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I cannot believe that Lent is already here!  The challenging and beautiful journey of the Lenten period is here with us again.  Unlike earlier in my life I now look forward to this special season in the church's year.  You may ask why?  The Lenten season for me is a representation of life.  It is about the pains and joys of life.  A dying to myself for forty days to hopefully rise again to new life in Jesus Christ in the Easter season.  It may mean some falling down, yet I intend to rise up again and again.  

"Rending my heart, not my garments."  Focusing more on the condition of my heart.  A time where I can genuinely examine my life and try to root out what is not life-giving through consistent fasting, prayer and helping others.  I try to work on the elements in my life that I know is not good for me or beneficial to others.  

It is an opportunity of forty days to let go of bad habits and persistent sinful behaviors and replace them with more life-giving behaviors, especially in my relationship with others.

It is a time to really listen to the voice of God and obey.  If I truly enter into this period with my whole mind, heart and spirit, I know at the end I will be a little more of who I am meant to be.  Lent to me is like being given a blank canvas and asked to paint what I would like my life to look like in my relationship with God and others.  It is an opportunity to attain a little more of my true self.

What are the things in your life that do not bring life?
Can you fast and pray about it?

Lystra Long, OP

New Grant, Trinidad

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