First Baptist Arlington

Our Lenten journey has begun. On Ash Wednesday, we committed ourselves to follow Jesus on his trip to the cross. We know that his way was difficult and that he suffered greatly. In some small way we try to join him in his suffering but the magnitude is too great to even imagine. We only know a lesser kind of suffering.

On a personal level, I watched someone I love suffer last week. My seven-year-old granddaughter fell at a roller skating party and broke her leg. As a result she was confined to a wheelchair during the week of her Winter Vacation. She had so looked forward to that week to play with her sisters and friends. But that didn’t happen. Her leg hurt and she couldn’t move easily or comfortably. And she was so sad. She didn’t complain, but there was pain and sadness in her lovely blue eyes. My heart ached for her. I thought that I would rather it had happened to me than to her.

On Sunday, a friend stopped by my office to ask how she was doing. He listened patiently while I complained about her distress, Then he told me that God would bring good out of the situation. He said that she would never again see someone in a wheelchair and not feel compassion for them. He reminded me that her situation is temporary and that she will soon run and play again but that there are children who will spend their lives in wheelchairs. She will be able to relate to them in a way that she never could have before her accident.

It is interesting to me that all this is happening during Lent. The cast will come off her leg during Holy Week. And she will be made whole. While I could not take my granddaughters pain and suffering, my savior took mine when he took my place on the cross. And when Easter comes we will celebrate our spiritual wholeness as we rejoice in Christ’s victory over death. To him be glory and honor forever!

Our church is getting saturated with the story of Jonah this Lenten season. The Wednesday series features several of our lay people speaking on various parts of this Old Testament book. I preached about Jonah on Sunday, and our children’s Sunday School is looking at the stories. Truth be told, most of us start and stop with the story of the whale that swallowed the reluctant prophet. It’s time for all of us to see what God’s Word has for us in the four short chapters of the book. The emphasis on repentance is very appropriate for the season of Lent, and needs to be learned and practiced by every one of us.

We probably aren’t as nasty as the Ninevites, but our sins do need to be acknowledged and forgiven. Jonah hated the Ninevites -- with good reason. He also knew how gracious God was, and the last thing he wanted to do was share that good news of grace with the wicked people of that great city. He knew that they would repent, and then God would not destroy them. Jonah was ready for fire and brimstone to wipe them out.

I wonder if there might be some Ninevites in your life? Are there people you just can’t stand? Are you ready to write off individuals who have hurt you? Are you ready for somebody who is particularly troublesome to drop dead? Well, maybe not literally, but you certainly would like to see a little punishment come along and cause some well deserved suffering. The last thing you want is for them to have good things happen in their life, especially if those good things come from a forgiving God.

Let’s face it -- either these feelings are pretty common, or there is something really wrong with me. I have nursed feelings of resentment from time to time, and can really identify with Jonah. I even know what it’s like to sense God leading me in one direction and then deliberately turn and go off on another tangent entirely. I suspect some of you also have that experience.

If we don’t get anything else from the story of Jonah’s life, let’s get it into our minds that God loves everybody -- even the Ninevites. He loves the people we hate. God loves even his enemies. Goes does that because that is the very heart of his personality. God is love. Think about that the next time you find yourself putting folks down, loathing them because they really hurt you, dismissing them because they are dumb enough to campaign for the wrong candidate, snubbing them because you are naturally superior.

When we are angry, when we hold resentments, when we vow to get even, we are not reflecting the image of our Savior. Instead we look like the devil! Worse even, our reluctance to repent and get right with God (and those Ninevites we know) opens the way for Satan to cripple us by tarnishing us with evil. Instead, let’s bow before God in life changing repentance, and begin to discover a love that is beyond us. Some of our Ninevites just might become our neighbors when we get to heave, and our new best friends here on earth.

February is here and with it comes some special days. Valentine’s Day with its focus on love is just around the corner. Then comes President’s Day when we celebrate the first president of our country, George Washington, who was born on February 22, 1732, and Abraham Lincoln, our president during the Civil War, who was born February 12th, 1809. In our family we have lots of February birthdays, and we do love to celebrate birthdays. This year we will be celebrating a new family birthday. Angelina will be six but has only been in our family a short time. She is a new great niece who God gave us to love and cherish.

Also in February comes Mardi Gras! That is the big party day that comes on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. When we lived in New orleans, everything closed down for the great party of balls, costumes, and parades. There is noting else quite like it. But from there, the month takes on a more somber tone as we focus on Lent and Christ’s journey to the cross.

Every year we take at good hard look at ourselves during Lent. Many people give up something that they enjoy as a sacrifice. People give up chocolate and soda. In some ways, those token sacrifices seem shallow as we move forward toward Good Friday, the day we commemorate Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us. We give up some small thing, yet Christ gave up his life. Good Friday comes with grief and sadness, but just ahead is Easter.

I see the whole Lenten season like the jazz funerals in New Orleans. They start with the musicians playing sad, slow songs as they march toward the cemetery carrying the body of a family member or friend. But they leave the graveside rejoicing with loud and happy music as they act out the scenario of Christ’s journey to the cross, his death and burial, and finally great joy as they celebrate Christ’s resurrection and ours as believers as well.

May we use this new month that God has given us to grow in faith. And it's Leap Year so we have an extra day to do just that!

Nell Hevelone,
Director of Christian Education