Forty Days To A New You!

40 days to a new body!  40 days to a clutter free house!  40 days until I give birth!  40 days to a whiter smile!  40 days until my last chemo treatment!

What do the next 40 days mean for your life?

Will they go by like the past 40 days, full of activity but signifying nothing?  Will they result in a concrete accomplishment or just the same old, same old?

This is the time of year when the church calls the faithful to walk very consciously through a specific period of time, 40 days to be exact.  The number 40 bears the biblical significance of marking a long or extended period of time.  It rained for 40 days and 40 nights on Noah and his ark.  Moses and the Hebrew people wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.  Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for 40 days.

In our world, these forty days make up a grading period in school.  It’s a six week wait for a doctor’s appointment.  It’s the time when the earth tilts back toward the sun and we eagerly await the coming of Spring.

For many Christians, these forty days mark the season of Lent.  They are days of spiritual pilgrimage when we stress those basic disciplines of our faith:  prayer, fasting and acts of charity.  Lent is the time of year when we hear the call to turn our faces toward the Son and experience a spring cleaning of our souls.  Yes, we are waiting for something:  the great celebration of our salvation through the death and resurrection of our Lord.  But our time of waiting is not a mere marking of time, slogging through the last days of winter.  For those who are willing to make the journey, these 40 days are a time of discovery and transformation, emphasizing the gifts of our redemption:  the call to confession, the Word of forgiveness and reconciliation, the spiritual nourishment of the sacraments, the intimacy of conversation with our God and the fellowship and fulfillment that comes through acts of love.

Both in our individual PLUM congregations and through our cooperative (e.g. the PLUM  Sunday Afternoon Lenten Series) there will be many opportunities designed to assist you and your family in making the most of the next 40 days.  Join us and experience the refreshment and renewal that comes when we exercise the basics of our faith and draw ever closer to our God.

What do the next 40 days mean for your life?

Pastor Siefert

Pittsburgh Lutheran United Ministries (PLUM), 405 Kennedy Avenue, Duquesne, PA 15110        412-466-7773