EmmDev 2017-03-16 [Lent2017] The need for Lent

The need for Lent

What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.      (Joel1:4)

The backdrop of Joel's prophecy is a devastating plague of locusts. He lists four different "species" of locusts and, although we can't accurately translate the Hebrew words he uses, the sense is clear: "What the red locusts ("locust swarm) didn't eat, the blue ones ("great locusts") ate, what the blue locusts didn't eat, the yellow ones ("young locusts") ate and what the yellow locusts didn't eat, the pink ones("other locusts") did."

There was absolute devastation through the land and the prophet suggests that what has happened on the agricultural landscape was true on the moral and spiritual landscape too.

When I look at the rat race that is life in Gauteng, I can identify some locusts:

• The constant bombardment of bad news from the media
• The current multiple failures of multiple leaders in government
• The poor performance of the economy combined with rising costs
• The manic busy-ness we're all sucked into and that we wear like medals.

When I look at my own life I see locusts too:

• I'm tired: Physically, Emotionally, Spiritually and Mentally.
• I'm too busy: Not only with work, but with media, with clutter, with multi-tasking and information overload.
• I'm too insecure: I'm scared to say "no" because I fear that my life is measured by the boxes I tick.
• My relationships are being pushed toward the superficial and I am becoming lonely in a super-connected plastic-being-touted-as-reality world.

God's answer to this is rest, retreat and repentance.
The purpose of Lent is to bring our "horses" to the "water" in the hope that we will drink...

Listen to some of God's calls to us:

• Isaiah 30:15: This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
  "In repentance and rest is your salvation,
  in quietness and trust is your strength..."
• Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God"
• Joel 2:13 Rend your heart and not your garments.
  Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
  slow to anger and abounding in love,
  and he relents from sending calamity.
• Mark 6:31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

We don't need to do Lent, but we need what Lent offers us:
Rest, Retreat and Repentance.

My Lent 2017 started as a list of things to do. But circumstances have stepped in and things have changed. I think I'm on a better track - but I'll tell that story tomorrow...

Can you hear God's call?
He's calling us to rest, retreat and repentance.
We'll unpack this over the next little while...

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