Submitted by Pastor Rodney Hopper, Christian Church, Rock Port, MO

What do you think of when you read the word, “Lent”? I can imagine words such as “repentance,” or “fasting,” or maybe “the stuff on my dress, pants or sweater for a lint roller.” The actual word comes from the ancient Anglo-Saxon language and means “Spring.” It refers to the time of the lengthening of days, when the trees and flowers put out new growth all around us. It is the time we are called to put out new growth in our spiritual lives by rededicating ourselves to God. During the Season of Lent, traditionally believers work on repentance, fasting and self-denial as spiritual disciplines that can help us grow closer to our Lord. We can also pray, study and reflect on the spiritual ways we are connected with God, friends, family, and strangers we may meet unawares (angels of testing). This year, Lent begins with ASH WEDNESDAY on March 1st, which begins a 40 day period (not counting Sundays), when Christians remember their sinfulness by coming together and receiving the ASHES of forgiveness as a sign of our repentance toward God. It is also a time believers rededicate their lives to God through our Lord’s saving Grace. In the life of the Church, ASH WEDNESDAY is one of the two FAST days with the other being GOOD FRIDAY. The season of Lent ends with Holy Week, the week leading from Palm Sunday to Easter. If you would like to consider a FAST, then consider a Fast from self-concern and instead Feast on compassion for others.
Many years ago a pastor challenged his church to live out the Lenten Season with the theme ‘Forty Days of Love.’ Have you ever been confronted with a message like that to help you change your perspective? Each week members of his congregation were encouraged to show their love and appreciation in different ways. The first week they were encouraged to send notes to people who had made positive contributions to their lives.
One particular man told this pastor, “I love you and I love this church, but I’m not going to participate in this Forty Days of Love stuff. It’s OK for some folks,” he said, “but it’s a little too sentimental and syrupy for me.” The next Sunday this man waited after church to see his pastor again. “I want to apologize for what I said last Sunday,” he told him, “about the Forty Days of Love. I realized on Wednesday that I was wrong.” “Wednesday? his pastor repeated. “What happened on Wednesday?” “I got one of those letters!” the man said. “The letter came as a total surprise.” It was from a person the man never expected to hear from. It touched him so deeply he now carries it around in his pocket all the time. “Every time I read it, I get tears in my eyes.” It was a transforming moment in this man’s life. Suddenly he realized he was loved by others in the church. This changed his entire outlook. “I was so moved by that letter, I sat down and wrote ten letters myself.” Receiving that letter was a transforming experience for Mr. Macho. It came from a mailbox rather than a mountaintop, but the effect was the same – his perspective was changed. God breaks into our lives and we are changed.
Dr. Forest E. Witcraft (1894 – 1967) was a scholar, teacher, and Boy Scout Executive. He wrote the following words that were first published in the October 1950 issue of Scouting magazine. “I am not a very important man, as importance is commonly rated. I do not have great wealth, control a big business, or occupy a position of great honor or authority. Yet I may someday mold destiny. For it is within my power to become the most important man in the world in the life of a boy. And every boy is a potential atom bomb in human history. A humble citizen like myself might have been the Scoutmaster of a troop in which an undersized unhappy Austrian lad by the name of Adolf might have found a joyous boyhood, full of the ideals of brotherhood, goodwill, and kindness. And the world would have been different. A humble citizen like myself might have been the organizer of a Scout troop in which a Russian boy called Joe might have learned the lessons of democratic cooperation. These men (Scoutmasters) would never have known that they had averted world tragedy, yet actually they would have been among the most important men who ever lived. All about me are boys. They are the makers of history, the builders of tomorrow. If I can have some part in guiding them up the trails of Scouting, on to the high road of noble character and constructive citizenship, I may prove to be the most important man in their lives, the most important man in my community.” He then went on to complete his thought by writing, “A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a boy.”
The first time I read Dr. Witcraft’s quote was as a church camp counselor. It was shared by our camp director and close friend Pastor Allen Cunningham. He had this quote at the bottom of his letters and emails, “A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a child.” Maybe we can learn to ‘Fast on self-concern’ and ‘Feast on compassion and love for others’, especially for a life of a child.