lent

Ash Wednesday is a few short days away and will mark the beginning of the Lenten season.  I don’t come from a high church background, but not long after I embraced Christianity I was exposed to the practice of observing Lent.  Over the years (not every year), I have regularly given up something for Lent as a way of reminding me of the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf.  It has been a helpful practice to prepare my heart, mind, and soul for celebrating Easter.

This year, instead of giving something up I’ll be adding something (which I suppose if you want to be technical about it, I’ll be giving up some time that would have been used for something else).  The addition will be reading a daily devotional guide by N. T. Wright entitled Reflecting the Glory.

Wright has been one of my favorite writers for a long time.  He is a first rate New Testament scholar from the Anglican tradition whose work has done much to stir up fresh thinking at an academic level.  This “stirring up” hasn’t been universally appreciated, but in general the perspective he brings is healthy and helpful.

Nor does he write for the academician alone.  Admirably, he attempts to bring his considerable intellect to bear on the outworking of his understanding of the gospel for people living in the 21st century.

Therefore, I’m planning on doing two things for Lent this year.  One is to allow Wright to be my guide in (re)thinking through the implications of what Reflecting the Glory would look like for us.  But in the spirit of Lenten commitment, I also plan to blog daily about the experience.  I’m hoping that I can convince some people to join me in the exercise and to be a part of the conversation.  But even if no one does, it will be a way for me to jump-start my sagging commitment to getting the old blog going.

I’ve just ordered some copies to hand to friends, or you can order up a copy of your own to follow along.