Walking in the desert. Be Unto Your Name Lord!

After the pinnicle of the rally, when all spiritual highness that everyone has experiened had died away, it was the moment for me to reflect what Lent is really about.

In the past, even for the first two weeks of Lent in 2006, Lent is as ordinary as any day in the rest of the year. However, this time, I wanted this period of Lent to be special and extraordinary to me. There must be a purpose for Lent but what is it for me?

Till now, I still recall how I managed to realise how Pride is one of the major obstacles for me through this friend of mine.

Being a class chairman and always having the perception that my assistant class chairman (Yuen Loong) pushes everything to me to do, I always enjoy putting him down each time he says some childish remarks or does some childish actions ever since the last year. Spending the first 2 weeks pondering on what my resolution should be and what can I do for this Lent? (Not what can Lent do for me?)

On the 31th of March, as both Yuen Loong and I was involved in the Sports Day, we were walking out of school to have lunch together after the meeting and a sense of calmness and grace just washed over me. I felt as though there was a great need to apologise to him and I was just feeling so remorseful on how badly I treated him for a year. Taking the opportunity that is placed before me, I apologised to him thinking that he would crap up some stuff to rub me off (which I well-deserved). I was wrong.

He said one sentence that made me realised how stupid I was, how foolish my past actions seemed to be.

He just said, "It was all in the past."

At that moment, a knot in my heart was untangled. All is well. Since that day, we've become good friends.

This incident has created my resolution : To love all. Love is the message I carry through Lent and I knew that I would not have apologised to Yuen Loong without the grace of God. How wonderful He works! This has revealed the pride in me, unwilling to reconcile with my brother and always thinking that my perception is right.

"If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift."- Matthew 5:23-24 (this time it's me that have sinned against my brother)

"After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

Jesus said to them in reply, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but the sinners." "- Luke 5: 27-32

Just imagine this: It's dinner time at Levi's house, and his friends are sitting around, talking and laughing as they waited for him. But when he walks in, the room goes silent. He looks like a new man, beside Jesus, so full of peace and grace.

This Lent has become more unique for me, though I may sin, I know that HIS arms are always open wide to receive me back into His Kingdom-That's the power of His Love. How I long to die to myself and become more like Jesus, to become a New Creation, to become like Levi, a changed man. That's what my Lent is about. How about yours?

-Joel