Lent is upon us

February 17 is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Lent is observed by 40 day’s of fasting and looking to Jesus in preparation for resurrection Sunday. I grew up in a Christian Evangelical Free Church and never heard about Lent until I was in my 30’s. I figure this happened for two reasons. One is that my church was Christian and not Catholic and Lent is generally referred to as a Catholic practice and two we didn’t practice ancient rituals or practices as it was considered boring, ancient and religious. I feel ripped off because of this, not blaming my church upbringing, well kind of, but more just sad that it was not practiced.

I see the need for spiritual disciplines in the life of a Christina as a necessity for growth. To take a specific amount of time to look to Jesus and his sacrifice and sacrifice something of our own to go with it brings growth, discipline, awareness and life to the follower of Jesus. So, what is happening during this season of Lent? Steps Of Justice.

Steps Of Justice began with from the injustices that missionaries with Youth With A Mission would see while traveling the world sharing the love of Jesus. No matter where we were in the world we would see injustices like, Slave labor, Child prostitution, unclean drinking water, lack of opportunities for education, lack of medical care, overwhelming poverty, corrupt government, etc… a group of us have asked ourselves what can we do? Even more we asked God, “What can we do for such overwhelming problems? Out of the cries of our hearts came an answer! It was simple “Take a step, make a difference!” This Lent Prayer Calendar is our “First Step! We are asking you to take this first step with us! Together we CAN make a difference in the lives of others, who are living in complete hopelessness!

The Steps of Justice Lent prayer calendar was a dream that I have had for a year now. We thought “what better way look to Jesus during this season than to look at His heart. I believe His heart breaks for the injustice in the world today. Isaiah 61:8 say’s that “God loves Justice.” Micah 6:8 say’s “God has shown you what is good and what is required of us. To do justice…” We are starting this season of Lent with the Lent Justice prayer calendar posted on the Steps Of Justice site.

Each day will be a new post and action towards bringing Justice to unjust situations. Gary Hougen from IJM describes injustice as the abuse of power. We want to get that power back into the hands of those who will bring hope and a future, not captivity, oppression and death. In the link section of the calendar you will find resources, movies, books and blogs to go to that deal with areas of Justice. We will also be spotlighting what is happening in Haiti so that we dare not forget.

Wayne, my good friend will be flying here mid March and we will be putting together a 30 Steps Of Justice prayer book (PDF download) that will go with the Steps Of Justice calendar. Please, please check it out and please please send others to the site. The more people praying, the more people acting the less injustice in the world.

Blessings.