Conklin-Broad Avenue-North News

March Newsletter                         

As I write this letter to you, we begin our season of Lent. Growing up in Carbondale, Lent was always one of those odd times to be a Presbyterian. In a city where Roman Catholics outnumbered Protestants 13 - 1, we Presbyterians stood out like sore thumbs. I have to admit it really was quite a lot of fun being a Protestant in a Catholic town in my teenage years.

On Ash Wednesday, I proudly wore my clean forehead! The three or four of us in my class who weren’t Catholic enjoyed the fact that we didn’t have to get up early go to Church and then walk around all day with a “black mark” against us!

But it got even better as Lent progressed! The vast majority of
my friends gave up something for Lent, more often than not Chocolate and other sweet stuff. As a young per son who was personally keeping the Hershey Corporation in business those candy bars tasted all the sweeter when I knew that it was forbidden fruit for so many of my friends.

You have to know that when a gang of us when out on a Friday, while many of my buddies were savoring their fish sandwiches, I savored the greasy goodness of a quarter pound of beef slathered with cheese, mustard and ketchup. You know we Presbyterians had it pretty good.

I’d like to think I matured a little bit since then. I admit my dietary habits haven’t really changed but I’d like to think that my attitude has changed. I don’t look at Lent, anymore, as a time when I can do things others cannot. I’d like to think that I look at it now as a time to do those things that I ought to do.

I consider Lent to be an opportunity to look more closely at my life, recognize where I have failed God and you and then to take action to live my life more closely to my calling as a follower of Jesus Christ. It would be a lot easier to give up chocolate but Jesus didn’t ask us to take the easy road: He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”

I guess that is what Lent is all about. As we remember Jesus taking up His cross we stop to consider what it means to follow Him.

In Christ’s love,