This podcast episode focuses on the invitation to engage in the sacrifice, introspection, and spiritual growth that Lent offers. We discuss Romans 12:1, which urges us to present ourselves as living sacrifices, emphasizing that true worship involves intentional acts of self-denial and reflection. Lent serves as a period for deepening our spiritual journey, encouraging us to consider even the smallest decisions and how they can lead to significant growth over time. We highlight the importance of journaling and prayer during this season as tools for evaluation and transformation. Ultimately, our aim is to draw closer to Jesus and strengthen our relationship with Him through these practices.

Takeaways:

1. Lent is a period of sacrifice that fosters introspection and spiritual growth in our lives.
2. The small decisions we make daily can have significant long-term effects on our spiritual journey.
3. Practicing Lent allows us to refocus on Jesus and deepen our relationship with Him.
4. Journaling during Lent is a valuable practice that helps us evaluate our spiritual state and growth.
5. Giving up certain comforts can remind us to seek God's guidance in our lives instead.
6. The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi serves as a profound guide for our actions during Lent.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Amazon
2. Bible805

Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of road advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's a little further down the road of life. I'll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic longer talks on Serious Saturdays.

Let's get started with our topic today, which is an invitation to join me for the sacrifice, introspection and spiritual growth of Lent.

Our verse for today is Romans 12:1, where it says, "Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship."

Lent is a time of a 40 day observation and remembrance of Jesus, time of temptation in the wilderness as he prepared for his ministry.

Sacrifice, if anything, isn't something we do intentionally, yet it is a practice that the Church has used through the ages for individual growth and as a tool for forming maturity. It's hard to grow as disciples if we're constantly giving in to every desire we have.

Yet in the area of spiritual growth, the reality is that when we do a little thing, for example, when we say no to the small desires of maybe one less cookie, it can help strengthen our willpower. That strengthening of willpower influences more than our physical appetite.

For example, when we're tempted to be snarky for the sake of peace, we may pause and be silent for just a few minutes more. If we're tempted to be unkind, we may intentionally respond with an act of service.

CS Lewis puts the whole process this way, and I'm quoting him here, where he says,

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act today is a capture of a strategic point from which a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.

An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is a loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible."

Lent gives us time to intentionally practice these smallest of good acts and see how they build in our life now.

Though Lent has been practiced by the Catholic and other liturgical churches for centuries, it isn't strictly a Catholic tradition. It's beneficial for any Christian in any denomination to practice with your church, small group, or on your own.

What makes it beneficial in that it's time for you to slow down, to think, to pray, to intentionally focus on where you are in your spiritual life. Giving up something in the exterior world like sugar or perhaps these days, social media isn't a benefit in itself, though quite honestly, it might be. But it's a benefit in the same way that fasting is.

When you hunger for something you're giving up, you can use that as a reminder to turn toward God and to ask what he wants for your life instead of whatever the thing is that you are craving at that time.

But instead of only focusing on the negative, one of the really important things to do during Lent is to take time to journal and pray and use this time for evaluation and change. To help you do this on the Hobo Soul podcast for the next 40 days, Monday through Saturday, one more day than I usually do, I'll be sharing a quote or a verse about Lent, and then I'll have some thoughts and some challenges to go along with it. Now, these meditations come from a Lenten devotion I've written. It's available on Amazon.

Well, sort of, but I've just had all kinds of technical issues on it, and I don't think it'll be out in time.

There's a black and white version that will be, but I did the prettiest color one, and Amazon's just kind of having a hard time getting that published. But anyway, regardless of that, I also have a free download of the Devotion available for you on my Bible805 website.

Now what I'm going to do and you know, please feel free to download it, pass it on, whatever. Hopefully the little book will be out, but you know the contents, what's most important, and it's completely free on the website.

Let me read you now, though, my introduction to this little booklet. The booklet is entitled In Dying We Are Reborn. And here's what I say in the introduction--

Lent isn't about us. It's a refocus on Jesus.

It's been a hard year, but we're still here and we're still trying to serve Jesus as best we can. Yet it's a time when a statement like I'm going to give up sugar for Lent or something similar seems almost sacrilegious.

This Lent, I want to dig deeper beyond some simple denial that in the back of my mind, if I'm honest, is fundamentally about losing weight. I'm not sure, as we begin, what a deeper approach to Lent means, but I tend to sort out questions in my spiritual life as I journal.

So this booklet, either the one that you get from Amazon or just downloading it, gives you space to do that as a way of digging deeper. And if you don't if you don't even have that book, just listen to the podcast and then have a little journal.

Whatever the devotional challenges that I'll share with you are quotes that I found that are all kind of on the topic of Lent, and they're ones that I wanted to consider more. And then after the initial quote, I have some comments and some challenges for you to think about in your journaling and on the podcast.

I'm going to be talking even more about things that these comments prompted. Now, just going on on my introduction, there are 40 days of quotes and journal prompts. You can start using this journal on Ash Wednesday.

That's when I'll be starting the Hobo Soul podcast and using it until Holy Saturday, the day before Easter.

Traditionally, though, you can take Sundays off because, as the Catholic Church puts it, Sundays, even during Lent, are a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and are not part of the penitential season. We rejoice in the resurrection of the Lord on Sundays.

If you feel that forsaking your Lenten sacrifices on Sundays is cheating, then you can continue to make your sacrifices.

But my prayer for all of us is that in digging deeper during Lent, that we'll grow closer to Jesus, whatever that means in your relationship between you and Him. Read, think, pray. Listen to what he says to you, then obey what he tells you as you walk in the new life that he gives again.

I entitled the Devotional In Dying We Are Reborn, and it was inspired by the peace prayer of St Francis of Assisi. I'm going to read this prayer to you in closing.

Think of the different sections as challenges that you can incorporate into your life as we observe Lent this year.

The Peace Prayer of St Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there's hatred, let me sow love

where there is injury, pardon

where there is doubt, faith

where there is despair, hope

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

That's all for this podcast, for transcripts, links to related material, and much more to help you learn to know, trust, apply and teach the Bible, go to www.bible805.com for now, let me end with this benediction and prayer.

May you walk each day surrounded by the gracious love of the Father, guided by the gentle wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and conscious of the astoundingly real presence of Jesus, who will walk with you until you're no more a hobo soul, no more a transient, wandering heart, but at home in the kingdom prepared for you with your God forever. Amen.