I was thinking about Lent recently and how the Lord has prepared me for Easter this year. An old adage came to mind: "you generally get out of it what you are willing to put into it." So it is with our devotions. So it is with most of life. We are all perfectly capable of skipping some of Lent or "taking off" a Holy Week altogether. We all know what it is like to get distracted, or lazy, and the next thing you know it's "'Alleluia, Christ is Risen... the Lord is Risen indeed', but I know I'm just going through the motions, Alleluia."

Sometimes we miss it; we opt out. But, there are also those times when God breaks through, and we get it. We have all experienced a Lenten season or two when it just clicked; when we truly walked with our Lord toward Jerusalem; when the Holy Spirit met us in our devotions; when the height, breadth, and depth of His love was perceptible, if only for a moment. We find ourselves hungering and thirsting for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ as if we had never been allowed to thank Him for the new life He so freely pours out on us.

We really do "get out of it what we are willing to put into it." So it is with our devotions. So it is with most of life; but, thank the Lord it is not so, and never can be so, with the Cross of Christ. The Cross isn't one of life's efforts. The Cross belongs to Jesus. He invites us to benefit directly and then share eternally from what He was willing to accomplish on the Cross. On the Cross, Jesus became sin for us. On the Cross His blood covers us. On the Cross our sin is washed away.

Holy Week turns an old adage on its ear--with the Cross of Christ we really do get out of it what Jesus was willing to put into it. And, He has put everything He has into it that we might get everything He has out of it.

"Alleluia! Christ is risen."

"The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!"

See you Sunday!

Rob