As we begin our journey into the season of Lent this year, I would like to begin by posing a question. What does it mean to be led? What does it mean to follow someone else? What does it mean to submit to the leadership of someone whom we consider to be an influence, a mentor? Someone who provides for us an example that we can truly follow.
One of the most interesting realities of the Christian faith is that being a follower is a key aspect, a key identity to being a disciple of Christ. To being a Christian in the fullest sense of the word. We are called to submit. We are called to obedience. We are called to allowing ourselves to be influenced by someone, namely Jesus, who will provide for us the example that we need in order to become the people that we ought to be.
As we begin this season of Lent, I want to encourage you, I want to encourage myself, to remember that one of the most important tasks we have been called do is to be led.
To be led to repentance.
To be led to grace.
To be led to the cross.
We have been called, and we are admonished over and over again in the scriptures that we are followers. That doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with us. That doesn’t mean that there’s something missing in us. What it means is that we have recognized that in order for us to achieve our greatest aims, we must follow the one who is leading us to the place where we longed to be, whether we realize it or not.
We all have a longing to fulfill our purpose. But we don’t know how to discover it. We all have a desire, to have a purpose, to have meaning, to be fulfilled in everything that we do. And so we must follow Christ, who is the ultimate example of goodness, the best model for how we should conduct our lives in this world. And the more we follow, the better we are at seeing and being who Christ wants us to be.
We discover that our truest and deepest identity is in Christ. That our desires should be those of Christ. And what we have longed to be should be given to us by God in Christ.
And so in this season of Lent, as we begin this journey, I encourage you to ask yourself, are you being led? Are you allowing yourself to submit to the leadership of Christ as he strives to lead you to where you should ultimately long to go?
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