VIDEO: “Lent: Prepare the Way”
Lent: Prepare the Way from Living Water International. Download it here.
We’re entering the season of Lent—that time of year when we prepare for resurrection to come.
This film is a gift to the churches who partner with us to serve ‘the least of these.’ May it enrich your experience of Christ during this Lenten season.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” – Jesus (Matthew 25:40)
Lent is a time to focus on being right with God, by setting aside extra time for prayer. It is a time when we focus on being right with ourselves—facing our weaknesses through fasting.
Traditionally, it is also a time to focus on being right with others, particularly the poorest and weakest among us, by seeing them with new eyes, and giving of ourselves and our wealth.
In Lent, we prepare for resurrection to break into our lives in a special way as we prepare for Jesus’ death and resurrection that we celebrate at Easter; but how do we prepare?
Listen to the message of the one who came to prepare the way for Jesus, John the Baptizer. His prophetic voice—the “voice crying in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). How does one prepare for resurrection, for the life if Jesus to break in, for life in the Kingdom of God? Repent, change your ways, and get washed!
The needs of the world are too great, the suffering and pain too overwhelming, and the lures of the culture around us are too seductive for us to begin to change the world unless we are changed ourselves.
The status quo is too alluring—it is the air we breathe and the food we eat. We’re high on self-help books and “reality” TV. Our institutions, theologies, and political systems won’t fix things. The only way we can be changed (so that we can help change our world) is to adopt another way of living—the life of the Kingdom of God.
Repentance prepares us. Lent invites us in.
