Get the app2016 Belmont University Lenten GuideSample
It does not take much life experience to identify with the words of the Psalmist in the scripture reading for today. “My eye is wasted with grief…For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing.” How many days, and years do we spent sighing in grief, feeling “forgotten like one who is dead”? How often do we feel as though it is God who has forgotten us?
The author of Hebrews tells us Christ has experienced the same anguish and pain that we experience in this life. Loneliness, sorrow and anxiety are all feelings Jesus experienced. Elsewhere in the Gospel narratives we see Jesus crying out to God asking why He abandoned His one and only son. Our feelings of loneliness, loss and sadness are not foreign to our Creator. In providing a way to save us He could have chosen to sidestep the human experience. Instead He chose to become like us in every way and even experienced death so that He might destroy it.
The gift of salvation is not Christ pulling us out of our mess, but Christ experiencing and becoming part of our mess. His redemptive work begins in the midst of our pain and sorrow, not outside of it. The season of Lent can be a time to reflect on the ways in which Jesus identifies with us in our humanity. So rather than trying to ignore the seemingly negative feelings of grief, sadness and loss we can fully embrace our entire experience, feelings and emotions and know that we have a God who is with us in the midst of it all.
“’For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the Lord who has compassion on you.”
JOSH RIEDEL
Assistant Director of Spiritual Formation
Office of University Ministries
The author of Hebrews tells us Christ has experienced the same anguish and pain that we experience in this life. Loneliness, sorrow and anxiety are all feelings Jesus experienced. Elsewhere in the Gospel narratives we see Jesus crying out to God asking why He abandoned His one and only son. Our feelings of loneliness, loss and sadness are not foreign to our Creator. In providing a way to save us He could have chosen to sidestep the human experience. Instead He chose to become like us in every way and even experienced death so that He might destroy it.
The gift of salvation is not Christ pulling us out of our mess, but Christ experiencing and becoming part of our mess. His redemptive work begins in the midst of our pain and sorrow, not outside of it. The season of Lent can be a time to reflect on the ways in which Jesus identifies with us in our humanity. So rather than trying to ignore the seemingly negative feelings of grief, sadness and loss we can fully embrace our entire experience, feelings and emotions and know that we have a God who is with us in the midst of it all.
“’For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the Lord who has compassion on you.”
JOSH RIEDEL
Assistant Director of Spiritual Formation
Office of University Ministries
About this Plan
Again this year, through an intentional partnership between the College of Theology & Christian Ministry and the Office of University Ministries, we have been able to create and offer a Lenten Devotional Guide to help our campus community prepare for Easter.
More
We are truly grateful for all of the individuals who have helped to make this fifth annual Lent and Holy Week guide a reality for our campus community, as it was indeed a campuswide collaboration that includes contributions from students, faculty and staff from across the campus, and even a few alumni. For more information, please visit: http://www.belmont.edu/
Related Plans
Belmont University Advent Guide
The Gospel of Mark (Part Seven)
Fully Devoted
Advent - We Have Found The King
The Boy Who Is Lord By Mark Driscoll
The Week That Changed The World
Elijah. Man of Courage, Man of Faith, Man of God.
Lent Journey
Sacred Jealousy: Stop Fighting Your Jealousy and Start Following It
