QUESTION: When I count out the 40 days of Lent on the calendar, I end up about a week before Easter day.  Why?  And, why should Lent be important to me? How to Count to 40 !! …Or, why should I make Lent a priority on my calendar? Second things first: I challenge you to make Lent a priority on your calendar.  I want you to take the Lenten Challenge.   The Lenten Challenge is: Immerse yourself in the Ideals of Christ. There are two Ideals. Obedience to God is the first Ideal.  Jesus always obeyed the Father.  The Son of God Almighty took on flesh, our reality on earth; that of Life, joy, pain, hatred, compassion, and Death!  He lived life to the fullest in the flesh, obeying the wisdom of the Father.  When He was obedient he was ONE with the Father.  They moved as ONE in an earthly time frame.  When you read the Gospels, you may notice that obedience, or contact with the Father was of foremost importance.  Note that family, career, history, future, or anything else came second.  This becomes an important and severe lesson for us who dare to put it to use in our life.  For in OBEDIENCE to Almighty God, there is Unity and LIFE and eternity. Suffering is the second Ideal.  Jesus suffered loss of life.  (Life is really companionship or Unity with God.)  It does not matter how he suffered.  It does not matter how much he bodily suffered.  (That is why I do not get too excited about movies or plays that portray the way he preached or how much suffering he endured in Holy Week.)  It does not matter what else he lost, be it dignity, family, breathing, making a living, or anything else in his temporal earthly existence.  It does matter though, that he lost the abiding presence of the Father (see the Passion stories in Matthew, Mark, John.  Ask me where to look in these Gospels and we can examine them together.) I may not have made myself clear in the last two paragraphs.  I would ask you to read these paragraphs once more with this in mind: LIFE IS NOT BREATHING AND TRYING TO GET ANOTHER FIVE YEARS OUT OF OUR EARTHLY EXISTENCE.  LIFE IS INTIMACY WITH GOD FOREVER.  Jesus had intimacy, oneness with the Father whether he was in the heavens or on earth.  We are to copy Jesus' example by having intimacy, oneness with the Father whether we are in the heavens or on the earth. All this Lent conversation has profound implications for everyday life.  I ask you to think about these things in this season of Lent. TAKE THE LENTEN CHALLENGE!!!   Immerse yourself in the Life, Obedience, and Suffering of our Lord and Savior: Read the Gospels again for the first time. Pray like you have never prayed before. Take advantage of Mid Week Lenten services in our circle of churches: enjoy the fellowship of Christian people gathered in a common focus in worship and soup.  Ponder the Life of Christ in the Imposition of Ashes on Ash Wednesday, the sermons and events on the other Wednesdays, and Maundy Thursday, Good Friday Tenebrae.   Make time to see a whole new you and new Jesus. Now then, what about counting to 40!  Ash Wednesday is February 21.  From there we continue the road of the Lenten season challenge until Easter.  We all know there are 40 days in Lent.  But sometimes we forget, that when we count out 40 days on the calendar from Ash Wednesday, we find ourselves about a week shy of Easter Day.  Why?  Let's take out the Sundays in our counting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Day.)  Voila!  The count is 40 days.  It works.  The reason we do not count Sundays in the Lenten 40 days is that Lent is about the Obedience and Suffering of Christ, and Sundays are always about Resurrection. Every Sunday in the year is a little Easter, a celebration of Resurrection, of LIFE, of Joy and Intimacy with God. Have a thoughtful Lenten season.  Take the Lenten Challenge.  Celebrate Life every Sunday. Peace, Pastor Elliottt Anderson   The Resurrection