The Stations of the Cross

I walked from one carving to the next in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Good Friday when I was 16 years old and was moved to tears.   I had been baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church one year before and felt like I had wasted the past year.  I was not a "good Christian"  and I was still heavily burdened with the guilt of sin.  My salvation was still unfinished and I had not yet been introduced to the freedom of Grace through Christ.  It would be a few years later on a bench swing on the Delta State Campus that I would hand my life over to Him and rest in the comfort and security of his Grace.  I remember both of those days very clearly.  I am so very grateful for the sweet little lady walking the Stations of the Cross with me that day who gently squeezed my shoulder for comfort and for Jennifer Findlay the RUF intern who had the courage to ask me hard questions that led to my tearful conversion at 18.   I went from feeling like I had to prove to God that I was good enough for him, to realizing that my salvation was complete in him.  

Lent has changed for me.  Lent is no longer a time of begrudging abstinence from some arbitrary enjoyment but is now a time of rejoicing and repentance in the finished Glory of the Cross. Those 14 stations and the 40 days leading up to Easter are a reminder to me of the cost of my sin and my unworthiness, but also a reminder of God's unfathomable love, the joy of communion with him, and ultimately that my purpose is to love and glorify him.  So, as I did last year I will try to fast from negativity and focus on God's blessings and relish in Christian Hedonism - for His Glory. 

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. - Romans 6:5

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, but as for today, Happy Mardi Gras!