Dear Friends,    As I was preparing for the      season of Lent I came upon a ‘Charlie Brown’ cartoon which has little Linus, looking very forlorn, asking Lucy, ‘Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?’  Lucy looking very self-righteous replies: ‘I just think I have the knack for seeing other people’s faults’.  Linus turns indignant; ‘What about your own faults?’ he asks. ‘I have a knack for overlooking them’ answers Lucy.

Well, we have now entered the forty days of Lent and by church tradition we are challenged to spend the period in self-examination and self-denial.  The aim being that the forty days are sufficiently long enough to help us change all but the most deeply rooted habits. It is like spiritual aerobics where the Christian tones up on their spiritual life.

Lent can be thought of in negative terms if it is about ‘giving things up’ and no doubt there will be aspects of our lives which need close inspection.  Time spent with God and reflecting on our lives are always rich and fruitful.  Lent is a time to hear and believe that God loves us, and then spend at least forty days attempting to find out what that means. Jesus was sent into the desert to face his temptations straight after his   baptism in the river Jordan.  It was just after being baptized by John that a voice was heard from God that said to Jesus ‘you are my Son, with whom I am well pleased’.  For Jesus he knew he was truly the Son of God and loved by his Father. When Jesus heard God’s words, he set out to a place of quiet and solitude, the desert, so that he could think and pray about them.

At the heart of the Christian story is the belief that God made the world and everything in it out of love.  Jesus came to live and die for us so that we can understand God’s words to him as being meant for us too ‘You are my beloved daughters and sons; you give me pleasure’.

Going into the desert isn’t an option for most of us, but perhaps we can make a little time during Lent to try think about what our lives are for. And that might mean giving up, at least for a bit, some of the things that distract us, so that we can focus better on the essentials of what life is all about and our place in God’s marvellous world.

 May your Lent devotions help you experience God’s love for you in a deeper and more profound way.

Rev Glenn Coggins,

Vicar of  the United Benefice of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe and Alverthorpe.