A journey can be a long and difficult trip if you make it alone. When you travel with others it may still call for a large measure of perseverance and resolve; but the whole experience can be much more rich and meaningful.
The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday—February 22. It marks the beginning of a time when the followers of Christ consider the journey Jesus took as he traveled to Jerusalem and the cross. It is a journey Jesus invites you to take with him. If it were a journey that ended with the death of an innocent man, it might seem to be a journey of despair. As a community of believers shaped by the resurrection, we claim it as a journey of hope.
Beginning with the Service of the Imposition of Ashes (7:00 pm, Wednesday, February 22) you are invited to join with the other members of this congregation as we travel with Jesus to the cross and discover the hope that can be found in the midst of life’s most difficult circumstances.
Our Journey to Hope will inspire you to reflect in new ways on Jesus’ experiences on the path to the cross. It will encourage you to see real life situations with fresh eyes. It will challenge you to interact with God with integrity—no matter what “mile marker” you have reached in life. By addressing some of commonplace issues that tend to trip us up—like relationships, self-esteem, work, temptation, money problems, suffering and death—travelers on the journey will discover how faith in Christ is relevant to everyday life and how having a faith community can make all the difference.
Let me encourage you to be intentional about going on this journey. God has the power to turn even your most hopeless situation into a story of new life and rebirth—and Christ is at work in the midst of the community of faith. That is the good news of the resurrection.
Open a new door this Lent and find the hope that changes everything.
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