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Tonight, I reflect once again on the week just passed and am thinking about how it has shaped and influenced my personal journey towards the cross.
This entire week I have had the privilege of leading a small group under the umbrella of the LAMP ministry. We have met each day for 4 hours and have engaged in a process whereby we pursued three focal points: to listen, to think and to discuss/act. Our week has included a wide range of subjects but we began the week by taking a considerable amount of time to look at the subject of Lent; its history, meaning and personal value. That was an exciting moment in the week because several participants had not heard of Lent or had heard the word but had little more context in which to consider its purpose and impact. By the end of our time of listening, thinking and discussing Lent, a depth of content had found its way into the hearts and minds of the listeners, bringing them to a new place of understanding and action in their own lives.
Some of the tools that we used were taken from the excellent work that Pastor Aaron has developed and which is available on our local church website at www.legacynazarene.ca. One of the pieces we listened to was a 30-minute video by Dr. Jesse Middendorf and Rev. Stephanie Dyrness Lobdell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC5ImHzSzcY which gave us great insight and understanding and which clearly opened up new understanding to the viewers. It helped them find a new way to consider their own journey to the cross. As we, myself and the other pastoral staff, shared our own personal reflections and journeys through Lent we passed on to another generation an important act of spiritual equipping in their own lives and relationships with the Saviour. My hope was and is, that this experience of Lent will have a spiritually positive impact on me. Not just for 40 days but ongoing. Bringing some others along with me, who for the first time began to understand the value of observing Lent in their own particular way, has been an additional benefit and blessing associated with this journey. You can’t beat the spiritually positive impact that passing on a spiritual discipline to others has on your own life.