Connecting Lent and Valentine’s: Love Through Sacrifice

Lent, Love and Relationship

Greetings and salutations to God’s holy and beloved ones at CCF.

    As February rolls around, it reminds me of several things, that I should not forget my daughter’s birthday near the end of the month and that I should plan a date with my wife by Valentine’s day. You men, should remember that too. Well, not the part about my daughter’s birthday but planning a date with your wife! I am also reminded that Lent is here, preparing us for Easter and the celebration of our Lord’s death and His glorious resurrection!! Praise be to God, all glory and honor are His!
    This year, the Lent season starts on Wednesday the 14th competing with the ever-popular Valentine’s Day. Luckily, both holidays are steeped in Christian history and packed with meaning and significance for those who love the Lord. Lent is the time for the Christian to reflect and consider the many ways we have fallen short of God’s mercies and repent for the sins that you just can’t seem to shake off so easily. The Spirit of Lent season is not to encourage us to wallow in our guilt, or somehow offset our missing the mark so that God will forgive us no, no, by no means. The purpose is to magnify that we only live by God’s mercies and Grace and we show this through humility and the sacrifice of something beloved to us. We sacrifice to remember and honor the ultimate sacrifice of Christ that we couldn’t do.
    So…how in the world do we connect these two together: Lent (sacrifice and repentance) and Valentine’s Day (love and relationship)? To those who are not engaged in any type of committed relationship, it will be a mystery. To those of us who are married or moving towards marriage, this will be at the front of our minds. Relationships are full of struggling and fighting, they are, and it’s ok. What is not ok, is how we generally respond when things go awry or we don’t get our way. This is where repentance comes into play and our need to sacrifice what may seem dearest to us to make our wrongs right. Usually, it is our pride or self-centered desire to always look out for number one (ourselves). Lent is asking us, in the light of the relationship God wants with us, to take inventory of what we put into the relationship versus what we got out of it and show the proper respect for the object of our Love. It is not a rote, religious, cliche ritual. It is a practice that is set on changing you at the very core of your soul.
    John 3:16-18 reveals to us the love that God has for us and the ultimate sacrifice He made because we could not. My prayer for us all is that we will recognize at the core of our being, the unfathomable love of God and what He sacrificed for us all. During this time of Lent, be serious about what you give up. Meditate on the sacrifice for you. God sacrificed for you to be in a relationship with Him. What are you willing to sacrifice for the objects of your love?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.