We find ourselves well into the season of Lent, a powerful time of traveling to the cross with Jesus. Along this journey, we may find ourselves changing in ways we didn’t expect. Named after an Old English word, “lengthen,” Lent is also a time when we can stretch our comfortability by setting aside our comfort to see breakthroughs in our hearts. Consider our impulse to know exactly where we are going and what comes next in our lives. Our desire for certainty can leave us in a state of frantic questions. “What will happen next?” “Where am I headed? “What turn do I take?” “What if I lose something valuable in the process?” To be bound by certainty feels like the safe path, the green light, the way we think we want to live until we realize this is not the life God calls us to.

Change is inevitable. It will happen, whether we want it to or not. But when we realize that there is One who is sovereign over our ever-altering lives, change becomes not a scary roadblock, but a necessary turn for growth. As Jeremiah 29:11 states, our God wants us to trust where He is taking us, that He has "plans to prosper [us] and not to harm [us], plans to give [us] hope and a future." During Lent, instead of being set in our familiar and fixed ways, many people decide to fast, to give up something of importance as an offering and sign of yielding to a more dedicated, focused devotion towards God. Seemingly small changes begin to symbolize something much bigger, a representation of personal sacrifice to honor the ultimate sacrifice. We begin to see unanticipated surprises and beauty sprout like a newly formed garden from the wonders of focusing on the finished work; we are given the undistracted opportunity to change with the one event that forever changed the course of history, Christ’s death and resurrection.

In our everyday lives, when Easter remains in our hearts as the season passes away until next year, when we embrace the spirit God has given us, one “of power and love and self-control.”( 2 Timothy 1:7), we won't be overcome by the fear of the unexpected tomorrow. We won’t fear the shift of a new job, a different living situation, and saying goodbye to old, safe, things so we can make room for the change. We begin to welcome it because we know we are designed to be transformable. Lent was meant to change us so deeply that we might walk into each next season a glistening, ever-renewing creation.

Devotional writer Barbara Johnson talks about the candles monks wore on the tips of their shoes to provide "light only for the next step". In the same way, God gives us just enough light to take the next step, because "God himself is the candle". In Lent, and in every season, God is the guiding light on our path (Psalm 119:105), the counsel we need to know where to go. The journey of Easter doesn’t end at the cross, but leads us, finally, to the empty grave, where we are shown that any hopeless situation can be transformed because of Jesus. The story of Easter shows us that even out of the darkest times, hope still shines through, and all our joy lies in the good news of the resurrection.

Sometimes the most uncomfortable of transitions become the most transformational in our lifetime. The courage to change comes from God's spirit, and we all have the opportunity to carry Him with us as we travel through life. How phenomenally do our lives evolve when we give God the reins? This is one of the deepest questions we may ask ourselves: Are we willing to see what lies on the other side of surrender? When we are, we will forever change, and at the end of the road, when we finally meet our resurrected Savior, we will feel a whole eternity’s difference lighter, all the while knowing that the change we experienced, every road we were shown, every decision that was made, and every Lent that we practiced had prepared us for a heart satisfying, eternally fulfilling reunion with the only One who never changes, Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). May we courageously embrace change this season as an invitation to embrace who we are truly meant to become. Amen.

We find ourselves well into the season of Lent, a powerful time of traveling to the cross with Jesus. Along this journey, we may find ourselves changing in ways we didn’t expect. Named after an Old English word, “lengthen,” Lent is also a time when we can stretch our comfortability by setting aside our comfort to see breakthroughs in our hearts. Consider our impulse to know exactly where we are going and what comes next in our lives. Our desire for certainty can leave us in a state of frantic questions. “What will happen next?” “Where am I headed? “What turn do I take?” “What if I lose something valuable in the process?” To be bound by certainty feels like the safe path, the green light, the way we think we want to live until we realize this is not the life God calls us to.

Change is inevitable. It will happen, whether we want it to or not. But when we realize that there is One who is sovereign over our ever-altering lives, change becomes not a scary roadblock, but a necessary turn for growth. As Jeremiah 29:11 states, our God wants us to trust where He is taking us, that He has "plans to prosper [us] and not to harm [us], plans to give [us] hope and a future." During Lent, instead of being set in our familiar and fixed ways, many people decide to fast, to give up something of importance as an offering and sign of yielding to a more dedicated, focused devotion towards God. Seemingly small changes begin to symbolize something much bigger, a representation of personal sacrifice to honor the ultimate sacrifice. We begin to see unanticipated surprises and beauty sprout like a newly formed garden from the wonders of focusing on the finished work; we are given the undistracted opportunity to change with the one event that forever changed the course of history, Christ’s death and resurrection.

In our everyday lives, when Easter remains in our hearts as the season passes away until next year, when we embrace the spirit God has given us, one “of power and love and self-control.”( 2 Timothy 1:7), we won't be overcome by the fear of the unexpected tomorrow. We won’t fear the shift of a new job, a different living situation, and saying goodbye to old, safe, things so we can make room for the change. We begin to welcome it because we know we are designed to be transformable. Lent was meant to change us so deeply that we might walk into each next season a glistening, ever-renewing creation.

Devotional writer Barbara Johnson talks about the candles monks wore on the tips of their shoes to provide "light only for the next step". In the same way, God gives us just enough light to take the next step, because "God himself is the candle". In Lent, and in every season, God is the guiding light on our path (Psalm 119:105), the counsel we need to know where to go. The journey of Easter doesn’t end at the cross, but leads us, finally, to the empty grave, where we are shown that any hopeless situation can be transformed because of Jesus. The story of Easter shows us that even out of the darkest times, hope still shines through, and all our joy lies in the good news of the resurrection.

Sometimes the most uncomfortable of transitions become the most transformational in our lifetime. The courage to change comes from God's spirit, and we all have the opportunity to carry Him with us as we travel through life. How phenomenally do our lives evolve when we give God the reins? This is one of the deepest questions we may ask ourselves: Are we willing to see what lies on the other side of surrender? When we are, we will forever change, and at the end of the road, when we finally meet our resurrected Savior, we will feel a whole eternity’s difference lighter, all the while knowing that the change we experienced, every road we were shown, every decision that was made, and every Lent that we practiced had prepared us for a heart satisfying, eternally fulfilling reunion with the only One who never changes, Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). May we courageously embrace change this season as an invitation to embrace who we are truly meant to become. Amen.