But the most precious blessing anyone can receive or give is always love—the kind of love that kneels down before another and offers something of value with open hands.

During Lent, we join with God and with each other, asking, “What have we witnessed?” And we see clearly without a nightlight that God has been with us, even in the shade.

My comfortable lifestyle (and lack of discipline, to be honest) does not grant me a familiarity with this kind of hunger. But there’s another type of hunger I know very well. A hunger for love, vocational fulfillment, the safety of my family, financial security. First world hunger, the kind that goes with privilege. It’s a hunger of deficit – the space between what is, and what we want.

If Lent is about anything, it is a season of confession. It is that time of year in the liturgical calendar when we kneel before the God of steadfast love, the God who forgives our every wrong, to… Let. It. All. Out! And happy are those who do so!

Lent is a season of renewal through the reflection on the life of Jesus, including his suffering and sacrifice. Today we know that in encountering the story of Jesus, the resurrection has already happened. The season of Lent ends in celebration of that reality as we move into the Easter season. The biblical stories we will encounter display God seeking after flawed people and people meeting Jesus for the first time.

Goshen College again offers an online resource to help believers make time and space in their hearts and minds to reflect during the season of Lent. Beginning March 5 (Ash Wednesday) and culminating on April 20 (Easter), Goshen College students, faculty and staff will provide weekday reflections based on the Sunday’s upcoming lectionary Scripture passages. … Keep reading »