Called to die?

"I must die before I die, so that when I die, I will not die."- anonymous Greek Orthodox Priest.


I'm speaking tomorrow in my college's chapel on what it means to take up one's cross and follow Christ. What did he mean? How do we take up a cross?


I look forward to Lent in a different way than all the other Christian seasons. Advent is hopeful expectation of the Birth of the Child. Christmas is raucous celebration and quiet reflection on the miracle of the Incarnation. Epiphany, Pentecost, Easter....... 


Lent stands as that great gap of time in the Christian calendar (40 days) in which Christians abstain from regular pleasures (eating or other kinds) and take up the ash cross, the mark of death upon the body, everyday in their heart. 


Repentance, tears, sadness, suffering. Through this season we can in some way enter into Jesus slow walk towards Jerusalem where much suffering awaits and experience the story personally through denied cravings for certain kinds of food, the longing for resurrection and new creation and the prayers found in prayerbooks that give this time its weighty nature.


Jesus never asked us to do much..... except die. And during this season death, the Christ's and our own looms over us and as Christ took up his cross so we take up ours.