Lent

Lent starts early this year, almost as early as is possible.

Over the centuries, Lent has been a traditional time for stopping and taking stock of one’s life and faith. It is a time for self-reflection and penitence in preparation for Easter. It is also a time when Christians reflect on their life of worship, prayer and how they live out their faith.

Faith is something that affects the whole of one’s life. What we believe in - whether that is the Christian faith or another faith or whether we are uncertain or have no faith at all - has a bearing on the rest of our lives. How we think and how we act is often dependent on what we believe.

For a Christian, faith is about more than going to church on Sundays. It is about being disciples of Jesus and living as his followers from day to day. For me, a “professional” Christian, my life, my work and my faith are very much bound together, but it can be less easy for those who work the outside the Church to see how it all fits together.

So, starting in Lent, there will be a series of occasional talks at the 10.30 a.m. service in the sermon slot given by Christians working outside the sphere of the Church. On the first Sunday of Lent at Reed, Peter Gough, known to many of you, will talk about how his faith and his work as a GP connect. On 9th March also in Reed, Rachel Harden will speak about her experience of working in the media. Rachel is a journalist who trained on a local paper in south London and since then has worked on the Liverpool Daily Post. Over the past three years she has contributed to the BBC RaW campaign (which helps people improve reading and writing skills) and currently also works for the Church Times. Later in the year, there will be other speakers, so do look out for them.

I like the phrase I came across about Lent on the internet last month - “disciplined excitement”. Lent is a time of discipline, but only because through it we can strip away the things that clutter up our lives and stop us from recognising God’s gifts to us and come back to the heart of what faith is about - God’s love for the world. That is not a static thing, and as we discover more about where God is at work, we can be caught up in the excitement ourselves.

With best wishes
Sarah