At this start of the season of Lent, I pray that you and yours are well. I also hope and pray that you are considering some kind of change in your spiritual life - a spiritual practice or discipline - to draw you closer to the life of love, grace and joy that God offers each one of us - even if it's spending five minutes of quiet with God, your friend.

Most years, you and I take up some kind of Lenten discipline or practice to try and straighten out our lives. We want to shed some bad habits, eat and drink more healthily or lose those extra pounds still with us from the holiday season (or longer in my case). We look at those habits or attitudes in life that get the better of us and make a commitment to be more self-controlled. We look where we've been going in life and choose to move in a different direction. And please don't get me wrong, all of us have activities or habits in our lives that may have the upper hand more often than we would like. Taking these six weeks to practice a different lifestyle - be it food, foul language, too much of work or television, or anything that may have the upper hand - is a great way to make a change and to begin to walk down a different path. Lent is certainly a good time for a little soul-cleaning by God's grace.

But at the same time, Lent also affords us a new opportunity to pay attention to how we are loving God. The first of Jesus' two great commandments sometimes gets passed over for the commandment to love our neighbor (Luke 10:27). It may get passed over because we can see our neighbor and his or her need. What could God possibly need from us? And how do we love God?

Well, like any friend or family member whom you love, God enjoys spending time with us. He doesn't need it, that's true, but God enjoys us. Think of some of those sweet moments in your life with a spouse or partner or best friend where you just sat together and watched the clouds roll by or the river pass under your feet or spoke together, reminding one another how much you love them. God is inviting us to that kind of relationship when we sit quietly with Him and remember all that He has done for us. God is inviting us to that kind of relationship and even conversation, when we pray or when we read the Bible. God is inviting us to thank Him in worship on Sundays and, in the process, be changed by our love directed back to the God who loves us so, now and always.

So, as you're thinking about some Lenten practice or living into your Lenten discipline, leave some space for loving God. For if we will, by God's grace and great love for us we will enjoy the holiest of Lents.