In addition to being an ordained minister (currently serving as the chaplain at a Presbyterian retirement community), I am a bit of an amateur photographer. I don’t know too much about shutter speeds, apertures, and such; but I have a couple of pretty nice cameras that know those things for me! And so I can focus (pardon the pun) on framing a nice picture that captures beauty and gives me a glimpse into God’s glory.
The season of Lent is a season of preparation for the glorious celebration of Easter. Often associated with the season is the notion of “giving something up for Lent.” It is a modern-day adaptation of the spiritual concept of fasting. The list of things that people “give up” for Lent is endless – meat, alcohol, caffeine, TV, social media, soft drinks…
Once I decided to give up giving things up for Lent. That worked well.
The purpose of the fast, though, is to draw near to God, and to remember how we depend upon God for life and well-being. It is also about engaging in discipline that strengthens our faith.
That is where I choose to focus my “fast” this year: on a discipline of daily reflection on Scripture. God has planted in my heart a passion for capturing God’s beauty and majesty through the lens of the camera; and God has also planted in my heart a passion for capturing God’s beauty and majesty in his holy word, the Bible. And so for my Lenten discipline I will seek to put both of those passions to use for the glory of God and the strengthening of my faith.
I invite you to join me on this 40-day journey. I will post my reflections and devotions on this blog (Picturing My Faith), and I will also post links to this blog on Facebook and Instagram (@revshw). If you would like to have a link to these blog posts emailed to you when the devotions are posted, please send me a message.
I hope and pray that you will find this to be a place where God gently speaks to us and informs our faith and devotion. May God grant you a blessed Lenten journey!
Faithfully,
Stephen Wilkins
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