I’ve spoken to quite a few people over the last few weeks who’ve been talking about what they’re giving up for lent. It was very easy to talk to people about what they’re giving up, but conversations seemed to flounder when we started talking about why?. So what does lent mean to you, why do you do, or not do, anything during lent?

What is lent traditionally? It seems to be an ever changing concept, originally it merely was used as a word for the spring season. Over the centuries it has morphed into the concept of a time of preperation – through prayer, penitance, self-denial and self-sacrifice – leading up to Easter and the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Sounds very noble and worthy, what does it involve really though? What does it mean to me personally? To you?

For me, its about renewal, a time to set aside everything I’ve failed at over the last year and focus on bringing myself back to God and my relationship with him. And its not just about my failings, its about looking at all the things that have been good and bad over the last year. Making an attempt to see God in everything thats happened. Sometimes its easy. Its easy to see where God was in things like Youth Assembly, its very easy to see where God was in the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Its hard to see where God was/is in some of the struggles at Portlethen Church. Its incredibly hard to see where God was/is throughout Iona’s suffering and death and the continued suffering thats come out of that.

Reflection, thats a key word for me at this time of year. Reflecting over the last year and how I’ve got through it. Another key word is Renewal. My relationship with God as really floundered over the last few years. I hate that. I find prayer, both speaking to god and listening to him, nigh on impossible most days. I struggle to have any regular, quality time exploring Gods word. I want to use this period, where the whole Church is focusing on preperation, on spending time reflecting and renwing myself; spiritually, emotionally and physically.

So what am I doing for lent? I’m concentrating on developing faithful practice in my life. Faithful practice in my prayer life, my Bible study habits and my attitudes towards things in life. I’m also follwing to other lenten practices suggested by two of my friends: Journey to Jerusalem is a program of reflection developed by Christian Aid, to help us reflect throughout our Lenten journey, but trying to avoid the often selfish habits of self-reflection. By doing this, I hope to be able to connect more with the challenges our world faces and how we should be responding as Christians. By following this, I hope to keep myself real and not retreat back into myself as I reflect, I have a bad habit of retreating into myself during hard times, I want to move away from that. Thanks to Stewart Culter for pointing me towards this! The other Lenten practice I was pointed towards is the Blood:Water mission. A challenge to only drink water during Lent, and use what you saved on not buying other drinks to help projects in Africa. Seems a great idea to me! Thanks to Laura for pointing me towards it.

Please share any Lenten journeys you are undergoing yourself, shared stories during a period like this can only serve to encourage and inspire us all on our own journeys. After all, faith is both individual and corporate. To grow, we must share our individual experiences with each other.

Now, this blog post is just a brief introduction to my thoughts from this pilgrimage. We experienced far too much to get it all down in one post, it might take quite a few, so bear with me!
We spent the first half of the week staying at the The Scots Hotel in Tiberias and the second half of the week at the St Andrews Guest House in Jerusalem. I have to say, so many of the places and the things we saw blew my mind, I still can’t quite belive I was there!

I will be adding some photos to my blog post on the pilgrimage, but if you’re on facebook, you could check out the full, comprehensive selection there, as well as a couple of videos!

A brief rundown of the trip goes like this:
Thursday 20th: Leave Glasgow early morning and arrive in Tel Aviv early evening, then bus to Tiberias.
Friday 21st: Bus to Nazareth, see some awesome places from the precipice, visit replica 1st century farm, visit 2 of the churches in Nazareth.
Saturday 22nd: Hope to attend a messianic Jew service of worship, visit to an unrecognized village, visit to a Church where one of the groups churches was hoping to link with (Suzi’s church in Linlithgow).
Sunday 23rd: Sail on Lake Galilee, visit the Capernaum, Visit St Peter’s Primacy and visit the Mount of the beatitudes.
Monday 24th: Drive from Tiberias, through the Jordan valley, to Qumran, then go for a “swim” in the dead sea, then on to Jerusalem. In the afternoon we visited Bethlehem and the Wi’am centre there.
Tuesday 25th: Visit the Yad Vashem (Jewish holocaust memorial museum) in morning, visit Tabeetha school in Joppa in the afternoon.
Wednesday 26th: All day; discover Jerusalem; including walking the stations of the cross, going to gethsemane and the wailing wall.
Thursday 27th: Attempt visit to the UN in Jerusalem, then free time.
Friday 28th: Fly home…

thats the trip in a nutshell. I’ll be coming back to look at specific aspects of the trip more closely over the next few days.

peace out

Chris