As of yesterday, we have entered the season of Lent. While I am not Catholic, the Protestant church I am attending observes Lent, and this year I feel compelled to observe it myself.
I have only observed Lent one other time. Ten years ago, the year we ended up moving from the home where we had lived since my son was born. That year the Lord told me to meditate on 1 Corinthians 13 for the entire 40 days. Less than two months after Easter, my family knew it was time to move.
The morning we were to go look at houses I heard in my mind, “It won’t look like you expect, but you will know as soon as you walk in the door it is the house.”
The realtor and I had five houses we were going to view, and I had a feeling on one of them. It was a house I didn’t want, but something told me it was the one. It turned out to be the first house we viewed, and I didn’t want it. It was a HUD home with all kinds of issues. Most of the flooring was gone. Light fixtures were gone. Holes in walls, and that is what we saw just walking through. Plus it all needed to be repainted. I didn’t want that house. I didn’t want the work. We had come out of a hard season, and I wanted some rest, not this.
Then I heard my realtor call from the front living area, “Did you see this on the wall?” Lands, what now?
I walked into the room where she was and looked at the adhesive letters that started at the door and went all the way around the room.
“Though I speak with the tongues of man and of angels…”
1 Corinthians 13 encircled that room.
For the next six years the black letters were visible on the maroon paint. When I repainted that room, I left the letters and painted over them. While I know that isn’t the proper way to do things, I also feel you can’t go wrong when 1 Corinthians 13 is part of your foundation.
When I think about Lent, I think about that year and how the Lord used my 40-day meditation to give me direction and to give me peace in choosing a hard road I would not have chosen on my own, but a road that was ultimately good and blessed, and I wonder what this year’s Lent observance will ultimately hold, how He will use it, who I will be when its purpose is fulfilled.
February 23, 2023
Copyright @2023 by Jerri Kelley
Jerri Kelley 