Preparing my heart for Easter
lenten aims
As Spring begins to break forth from the bluster of winter, the year turns towards Resurrection Sunday yet again, in the year of our Lord 2025. I begin to take stock of my heart and how I have already fallen short of the spiritual resolutions I began the year with. For the past five years, I have deliberately given something up so that when I miss it, and it comes to the forefront of my thoughts, I can instead fix my mind on Christ and His sacrifice for me, an undeserving sinner.
I will do so again this year, and I hope to meditate especially on what Christ gave up when He willingly took on human flesh, becoming as we are, enduring every temptation common to man, and ultimately dying and resurrecting for the sheep God the Father gave Him.
Philippians 2:6–8
though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
I aspire to be a better steward of my time during this Lenten period, spending more of it in prayer and the Word, replacing the time I have spent in sloth. I am giving up excess screen time and aiming to not be slavishly and blindly prone to “obey” my phone, a product of plastic and glass. I desire to be master over it, as my father constantly cautions me, and to replenish the time I would normally spend on it on that which explicitly is beautiful and good and/or honours the Lord.
Time is the most valuable commodity any of us have, after all, and it is one that I struggle with squandering all too frequently. I hope to be more intentional with the time I have at rest—rest is, of course, a good thing from the Lord, but I desire to be more useful to the Lord and God-glorifying in it. Spending more of it writing, for example, instead of watching a film or scrolling through Pinterest.
I hope to spend more time outside, appreciating the beauty of Springtime and marvelling at the Creator in the work of His hands. It is a gift to have time to spend outdoors, and it is a gift to live in a pretty little corner of California, where it will not be too hot for awhile yet, and where the sky is increasingly baby blue, the Japanese cherry blossoms begin to burst forth, and the lawns and fields I am surrounded by begin to green after the fresh fall of rain.
There is some blue sky, let us chase it!
Above all, and going back to my first aim, I plan to intentionally focus on Christ’s sacrifice for me—day in and day out, morning and evening—in as many moments as possible, from the time spent in intentional, daily prayer to the instances where my mind wanders on my drive home from work or as I fold laundry.
I desire to fix my heart upon the Cross, that dark stain of human brutality and suffering which my Saviour redeemed for me and which is now an emblem of atonement and salvation for the elect. I seek to meditate on the life and work of Christ, Whose active obedience to the Law of God fulfilled that which I could never live out perfectly, not even for one day.
I long to emerge from this year’s Lent a better and more grateful believer, more aware of what Christ accomplished for me in His life, death, and resurrection, more attuned to the holiness and perfection that God demands and how incredibly unworthy I am to have a Saviour, Intercessor, and Mediator Who is holy, pure, and enough when I am not.
I would recommend reading this excellent article on Lent:
Marianne Dashwood, in Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I also freely acknowledge as a Christian, and as a Protestant, that there is no need to observe Lent, and it should not be required. It is certainly an extra-biblical practise, and one that I began to observe as a Protestant in a low-church setting. I strongly craved a higher liturgy in corporate worship as well as a Resurrection Sunday which focused on Christ’s death, resurrection, and/or ascension.
I am now, by the grace of God, in a higher-church setting, and I am grateful for the higher liturgy that accompanies this. I still observe Lent as a means of preparing my heart for Easter, and to realign my spiritual goals until summer, when I have more time to focus on the Lord. It is merely one way I exercise my Christian liberty to recenter my heart on Christ’s person and work, and it is but one portion of the rhythms of the year that I make use of to do the same thing (New Year, Easter, Summer, return to academic setting, Advent).
Here are a few articles that discuss the pros and cons of Lent for the Protestant at greater length:
https://youngcalvinists.org/2014/04/17/approaching-lent-as-a-reformed-christian/
https://www.challies.com/articles/is-it-sinful-to-observe-or-not-to-observe-lent/
https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/articles/yes-and-no-lent-and-reformed-faith-today