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Season 3 Episode 4: Why Lent Matters- A Conversation with Father John Riccardo
96 Plays2 years ago
Father John Riccardo is a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit. He is the founder and executive director of ACTS XXIX. Father John is a sought-after speaker and author. His most recent book is called Rescued: The Unexpected and Extraordinary News of the Gospel
Mentioned in this episode:
Journey to the Cross: A 40 Day Lenten Devotional by Paul Tripp
Uncovering the Love of Jesus by Asheritah Ciuciu
To Seek and to Save: Daily Reflections on the Road to the Cross by Sinclair Ferguson
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Connect with Pat here:
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This podcast is produced and edited by Angie Elkins Media, Inc.
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Transcript
Introduction to Root Like Faith Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwank and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It is our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's word, transformed by the love of Jesus and moved by his mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more important.
Transition to Lent Series with Father John Ricardo
00:00:19
Speaker
Well today we are transitioning from our series called The Unstuck Spiritual Life. Be sure to go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't had a chance already. We are transitioning to a new series on Lent called The Making Art. So as an intro to that series that we are officially beginning next week, we have a very special guest and friend today, Father John Ricardo. Let me tell you a little bit about Father John.
00:00:44
Speaker
He is a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit. He is the founder and executive director of Acts 29. Father John is a sought after speaker and author. His most recent book is called Rescued, the unexpected and extraordinary news of the Gospel. I know that you're going to love this conversation with Pat and Father John today. I can't wait for you to listen in.
00:01:08
Speaker
A reminder, stick around for the end because I'm going to be sharing a few of our favorite Lent resources for you and your family and you don't want to miss those. So let's get going.
Father John's Personal Journey and Call to Ministry
00:01:20
Speaker
Well, as we mentioned already, our guest today is Father John Ricardo. He's a priest of the archdiocese of Detroit. And as we've mentioned, he's the founder and executive director of Acts 29. He's also a sought after speaker and author. His most recent book is called Rescue the Unexpected and Extraordinary News of the Gospel. He's also become a friend in real life, which I'm extremely grateful for. And so, Father John, welcome to Root Like Faith. Hey, thanks, my brother. Great to be with you.
00:01:44
Speaker
Absolutely. It feels like another lifetime when we had lunch. I don't even know. That was back before Thanksgiving, I think. And so a lot has transpired since then. But I sure appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. It's a joy. Thanks. I look forward to the conversation. This is a rich topic.
00:01:59
Speaker
We've been talking, last season we did a short series on Lent and I would love for our conversation today just to be an intro of sorts. We're getting ready to enter into the Lenten season and we're going to be talking about Lent here in the coming weeks and some of these episodes that are going to come after our conversation.
00:02:22
Speaker
But I want to begin by just talking about Jesus. If we go wrong there, we go wrong everywhere else. And so I know you're a man that loves Jesus. And so I just would love for you to share with our root-like faith family a little bit about your story, how you came to know Christ and just really your calling into ministry.
Spiritual Gifts, Struggles, and Awareness
00:02:40
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah. So I'll try to do this really quick because I could talk like you. I can talk about them all day long.
00:02:47
Speaker
So maybe this is the easiest way to say it. I seriously don't ever remember a time in my life when I didn't know him. So, you know, Paul talks about different gifts that we've been given and faith is one of those gifts. And so I think just by God's mercy, for whatever reason, maybe because I just really need it, I think the Lord gave me the supernatural gift of faith as a child. And by that, I simply mean
00:03:15
Speaker
Because trust me, I have not always been obedient to the Lord, which makes my sin all the more grievous. But I've just always known the Lord. I seriously don't ever remember time I didn't like from a young age, I could remember looking at a cross and knowing that happened for me. And somehow my whole life needs to be a response to it. And I had no idea what that meant. But I just knew it. And so I've, I've just kind of always I've lived
00:03:48
Speaker
constantly conscious of God's presence in my life, which again, in those times in my life, when I when I wandered from him, I knew he was there, which makes, you know, rebellion or disobedience all the worse, right? But so I'm just grateful for that. I've always known him. And then at a certain point in my life, you know, that obviously matured my parents planted faith in the very young age I saw
00:04:15
Speaker
I just saw their life of discipleship and it was so attractive and I knew my parents were my heroes. They were successful worldly and they were clearly happy. But at the core of their life was a relationship with the Lord. And so I just kind of knew like, I guess if I'm going to be happy, I'm going to have to live that way.
00:04:38
Speaker
And then the Lord brought people into my life, which helped that mature. And then at a certain age, maybe like 24, 25, more or less out of nowhere, he just kind of broke into my life and asked me to give my life to him as a Catholic priest. And so I said, I don't want to do that. Do another plan, Lord. You got to give me a desire for that. And I think the desire
00:05:07
Speaker
took a day. I mean, I literally think like that happened one day, the next day I woke up. And I just woke up with this unexplainable, like realization, like, I want to be a priest, like, why in the world would I want to do that? And but it was, it was something I couldn't run from. And I've loved it. So I've been a priest 25, almost 26 years now.
00:05:29
Speaker
beyond grateful to God. Yeah, I love that. I know when we're having lunch, sharing my story, I mean, my story is somewhat similar from the standpoint that, you know, I mean, from a young age as well, I think I was sharing with you, like, I just remember being a young, I don't know whether I was seven or eight years old, and I just loved to read the Bible. I just always had just a love for the Lord and had an interest
00:05:49
Speaker
and even a hunger for spiritual things. And so I'm like you. I just thank God for the grace that he has shown me over the years and for his patience with me. Like you said, it makes the rebellion or the running from God all that more grievous. And so I just, yeah, can identify for sure with just the Lord's goodness and his pursuit of you. And we talk Michigan football a lot on the podcast. And so I just feel like I need to point out you are a U of M grad, correct?
00:06:19
Speaker
I am a U of M grad. It was a wonderful year. Might not have ended great, but it was a wonderful year. It was a wonderful year. I'm still getting over that. I was rooting for Georgia because it makes that loss a little bit easier to swallow.
00:06:34
Speaker
I watched the coin toss and I saw the size of Jordan Davis and I went, we don't have a chance. I know, right? But hey, it was a good year, Lord. Thanks. I just sat back and enjoyed it. Oh, boy. Well, let's transition now to talking specifically about Lent.
Understanding Lent: Basics and Significance
00:06:51
Speaker
You know, as we've talked about before, I think that there really is kind of a renewed interest amongst Protestants in particular around the, you know, just the observance of Lent. And yet this is nothing new. You know, the vast majority of the church has observed Lent throughout church history, you know, whether Catholic, Orthodox and even many Protestants.
00:07:10
Speaker
And so there just seems to be a real renewed interest amongst many Protestants around Lent. And so I'd love for you just to kind of speak to some of the basics of Lent. I mean, what is Lent? Where do you see this beginning to emerge amongst followers of Jesus? And why is Lent so important for us today? Yeah, those are great questions. There's so many ways we could come at this, right? So just from like a historical perspective, one of the ways to think about it is obviously from the very beginning, Easter becomes
00:07:40
Speaker
the focal point of the Church, what Jesus has done in His resurrection, and then really quickly there becomes this time of, as people are discerning coming into the body of Christ, I mean, it was with the exception of, say, like the jailer in Philippi, who has a rather hasty conversion experience, the normal experience of somebody coming into communion with the Lord,
00:08:08
Speaker
was a rather intense time of scrutiny. And so there was this early on in the church, this prolonged experience where people who were considering being baptized, because nobody was baptized, going through preparation, prayer, exorcisms, really hearing about, you know, to become a disciple of Jesus is big stuff. Are you sure?
00:08:39
Speaker
because it's gonna mean you're not gonna be at all sorts of public celebrations, which means people are gonna notice you're not there for the empire or whatnot, and this could cost you your life. And so that's kind of, something like that is the origin of this time, which was primarily focused on those who were preparing to be baptized, going through intense scrutiny,
00:09:07
Speaker
But then also, as years go on, it was a time where those who were already baptized, who were in the church, were looking at it as a time of, hey, I should probably re-examine my own life right now too. How am I walking with the Lord? And so that was part of the origins, right? I think maybe two, one of the things that hits me, I remember having a long conversation, so I have three sisters who became evangelicals when I was
00:09:36
Speaker
a teenager. And I remember having a conversation with one of my brother-in-laws one time about, you know, like the quote unquote church year, you know, so like in the Catholic Church, a liturgical season. And he didn't understand it. And I says, well, here's one of the gifts that I've come to experience is the beauty of having something like a rhythm to a year is I don't, I get opportunities to just focus in on particular moments of Jesus's life.
00:10:06
Speaker
in an extended way. And so Lent is this, you know, long season before Easter, and it's got two foci, if you will, two focal points. One is an initial time of like conversion, repentance, examination of my heart, you know, really just kind of, it's an extended meditation really on Psalm 51 just created me, oh God, a clean heart. But then the second part is honing in on the passion.
00:10:37
Speaker
and just spending intentional time lingering over the Scriptures that are just helping us to soak ourselves in the events of Holy Week and then Easter, of course. And that's just a tremendous grace, right? Like, we need to meditate on the passion all the time. Because it leads us to be more grateful.
00:11:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting to me that you have, I think, like I remember growing up and some of my closest friends were Catholic and I think my perception was that this is just a season where you give up something you really love. Like that was just sort of my perception and you'll appreciate this. You know, the first year that we really sort of observed Lent in a more intentional way was just a couple of years ago. In fact, it was just before
00:11:30
Speaker
COVID hit. And I remember I thought, well, okay, I'm going to do what I know about LEND, which was very minimal at the time. And I'm going to give up what I love. And I love Chipotle. Like I could eat Chipotle every single day. And so what a terrible idea. I thought, you know, I'm going to give that up and I can do it for 40 days. And then COVID hit and everything shut down. I realized my 40 days of fasting from Chipotle was going to be a lot longer than that.
00:11:55
Speaker
And I can't remember what the total was, but I can't even tell you how good that burrito was when when they finally reopened stores. But anyway, all that to say, I think oftentimes that that's the perception of what Lent is. It's this it's this giving up. It's I'm not going to eat sugar. I'm not going to eat a burrito, whatever it is. But but it's it's obviously way more than that, isn't it? Yeah, so tragically, I'm afraid for many people, that's all it is. Right.
00:12:23
Speaker
And so that's, there's a truth to that, which is really unfortunate, but it's not what it's supposed to be. Cause all that is then is an extended time to like grow in self-discipline. And there's a lot of value in that. That's not the point of Lent, you know? So the point is again, to, if I don't emerge from Lent looking more like Jesus, meaning loving the father and loving my neighbor, then whatever I did was a failure.
00:12:51
Speaker
I might've lost some weight. I might've showed, hey, I can go without coffee for 40 days, which I did one year and I'll never do again. Because everybody around me said, I'm growing a shirt. That's right. Give up something else next year. Have some coffee. Yeah, that it's a failure. This isn't a self-help program or a chance for those of us who live in cold weather to get in shape before we put on shorts.
00:13:17
Speaker
It's all about growing in charity and grown in virtue and grown in faith. Yeah. I just was thinking about, you know, Romans six as you're talking about that and.
00:13:25
Speaker
just Paul's words of being baptized in Christ and being buried with Him and raised to new life. And so much of what you're talking about is just that, that theme. Paul says, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Don't let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desire. Don't offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life.
00:13:49
Speaker
And that's really what you're talking about, right? I mean, just that, you know, that season of intentionally asking God through His Spirit to search us and to repent of sin so that we might emerge at the Easter season looking more and more like Jesus experiencing that resurrection life that He has for us. Yeah. And to be sure, we all, like, who of us doesn't need more self-restraint? Right. You know, and who of us doesn't
00:14:20
Speaker
You know, you mentioned that passage in Romans, it always makes me think of Romans 12, too, and just offering ourselves as a living sacrifice. And I remember, I forget which commentator says, you know, the problem with a living sacrifice is it keeps crawling off the altar. And it's like, every day, like, I have to crawl back on the altar. And if we're honest with ourselves, like, there's a lot in me that needs to die. You know, there's a lot in me that needs to surrender.
00:14:50
Speaker
either anew or for the first time, there's some stuff. No matter how long we've been walking with the Lord or how shortly, there's some things without an awful lot of reflection and prayer that the Lord just says, hmm, why don't we talk about that? Because that's not helping you grow in freedom and live in freedom, and my desire for you is to be free.
00:15:12
Speaker
I was thinking, I don't know what got me thinking about this the other day, but I was thinking about just that idea of virtue and growing in holiness or righteousness.
00:15:22
Speaker
And in so much of that, obviously we talk about that as it relates to us personally or individually, but there's this whole social or relational part of that isn't there. I mean, this idea that virtue and holiness and righteousness has benefit for us, that God through His Spirit is setting us free and from all of the things that are dead and dying in our life, that are robbing us of the life that God wants for us.
00:15:45
Speaker
And yet it also robs us of being able to give our best, I think, is what the church has taught to others, to those around us, right, to free us. And so this idea of living in virtue or righteousness or holiness frees us to love God, but also frees us to love others well, doesn't it? Yeah, that's actually a concept I've been... I and our team in Acts 29 have been talking a lot about, like, what is it about holiness that
00:16:14
Speaker
that's bigger than we, than we tend to think of it. So we have that kind of limited understanding, like you just mentioned, like, almost like untainted by the world, right? You know, like, I'm, I'm pure, whatever that, however, we understand that. But there's another component to it. And for me, it's always, it's, it's embodied in Mary and Luke one, where, where Mary just responds to the angel, you know, colloquially, whatever you want to do to me,
00:16:44
Speaker
do to me. And like, so there's this understanding of holiness for me more and more that's just, I want to be available Lord to hear your voice and to do what you want to do in and through me in the world. So that the world might be more and more
00:17:03
Speaker
called back to conformity with the plan that you intended for it and that your son began with his resurrection, that recreation that he began. Yeah, that's good.
00:17:14
Speaker
It's really good. So let's talk a little bit about ways that people typically enter into this season the wrong
Misconceptions and True Focus of Lent
00:17:21
Speaker
way. We've kind of touched on that already, but what are ways that somebody might enter into, and we're gonna end here in just a little bit on some practical things that somebody can do if this is the first time maybe they're gonna observe Lent, but what are some wrong ways that people tend to enter into this season in the wrong way?
00:17:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think what I think we mentioned it, but just to say it again, if it's the main the main wrong way would be it. It's just about personal self discipline. Yeah. So what we want to do is I want to I want to we talk about some practical things here in a second, but I want to enter into this with okay, what's the focal point? You know, like what's the end in mind? We're doing this in order to what are we doing this in order to grow in charity to grow in faith to grow in hope?
00:18:12
Speaker
to grow in a deeper walk with the Lord, to grow in a deeper understanding of his passion and what he's accomplished for me. Oh, okay. We're not doing it in order to see how long I can go without doing whatever.
00:18:29
Speaker
No, that's that's really good. I think, again, so many of my friends growing up, it just it felt like that was the that was the goal. You know, that was the priority. And yet that's such a different perspective as you enter into into Lent. I'd love for you to kind of speak to the you know, just to I think to the point that you mentioned earlier that really, you know, Lent again, is that that 40 days of preparation, it's leading up into Easter.
00:18:59
Speaker
And if we don't enter Easter more like Jesus, more in love with Him, more like Him, then we've really missed the point of Lent. But speak again to just, I think the importance of keeping our eye on Easter as we go through Lent. I mean, why is it so important that we do keep our eyes on Resurrection Sunday or on Easter as we go through this particular season, this 40 days of preparation?
00:19:25
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I heard one person say one time, you'll get out of Easter what you put into Lent. So in other words, like the more I really enter into this season with, I mean, like obviously the Lord has risen and he's triumphed over sin and death and he's crushed Satan's head and he's begun the recreation of the universe and all these things that he began on Easter Sunday that we're going to celebrate. But we don't, most of us anyway, we don't,
00:19:55
Speaker
uh, take concentrated time to think about those as deeply as we should. And so, um, with that in mind, like, okay, Lord, I want to, I want to know like the, the slavery of death. I want to know the slavery of sin. Um, I want to like just be aware of those more intensely in the season of Lent, so that when we get to the point of celebrating Easter Sunday,
00:20:23
Speaker
And then the Easter season, which dwarfs the Lenten season, I mean, it's longer than Lent. Now I have this newfound gratitude, surrender, joy, just totally disposable because of what it is that you've done. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. So to help with that, I mean, one of the things that I've increasingly found over the last number of years as a great companion,
00:20:49
Speaker
for Lent, as I'm going through each day, is just to linger over Exodus. So read Exodus as you start the season of Lent, because Exodus is the type of the deliverance from slavery that the Lord gives us from the tyranny of Satan and his oppression.
00:21:11
Speaker
No, that's so good. I love that thing. I mean, how much of just our loss of the seriousness of sin affects how we approach Lent? I mean, you just- Oh, I think it's the biggest, somebody said once, it's the biggest sin actually, is the loss of the seriousness of sin. Yeah, yeah. And then you see the passion of the Christ and you see Jesus getting scourged and it's like, oh, that's what that means? And then all of a sudden you realize, I don't think I take sin seriously enough. Like it cost God his life.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. No, it's so good. I think that I don't remember who it was if it was one of the Eastern fathers who said this is sort of shifting gears a little bit, but yeah, talked about that transition from Lent and
00:21:59
Speaker
just the seriousness of sin and being set free from sin to then enjoying the celebration of Easter. But they talked about, I think the phrase that he used was that spring comes slowly. And I believe that he was using that phrase as a way of describing just the spiritual journey.
00:22:19
Speaker
uh, growth transformation, you know, just that idea that, that even when you think about Lent on the calendar, you know, it starts in these cold, dark, you know, days of winter and, and moves slowly yet steadily towards, you know, spring towards resurrection, towards Easter.
00:22:36
Speaker
And I believe he was using that as an analogy or just an illustration that so much of the spiritual life is like that, that it's slow, it's this lifelong journey, this process of being dead in our sins, being made alive by Christ, and yet spring, it moves slowly, but spring is coming. And I just have always loved
00:22:56
Speaker
that language and what it communicates when we think about, you know, just growing in Christ's likeness because it's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to look at our own sin. It's easy to look at the cross and come to the awareness of what it really costs God and yet to fall into sin again. And so it's such an encouragement at the same time to be reminded of God's grace and God, just the way that he pursues us and is patient with us. But I've always loved that phrase, spring comes slowly.
00:23:23
Speaker
Yeah, and the vine grower is patient. I was just reading, just thinking, anticipating the conversations in Easter in the Scriptures, and hearing you talk about that, I was just reading the other day a favorite reflection of mine on the conversation between Jesus and Peter after the resurrection, the first conversation that we have right in John 21.
00:23:47
Speaker
where Jesus asks him over and over again, do you love me, right, the three times? And he just makes the observation, you know, like, when Simon hears Jesus call his name, he knows, like, what, the world is about to happen, I'm gonna get dressed down, I know. And of course, the question is, do you love me? And the author simply makes the observation, who on earth would have expected that question?
00:24:15
Speaker
The question we expect is, what have you done? But that's not the question Jesus asks to Simon or to me or to you. The question is, do you love me? And so thanks be to God, you know, I think we, or at least I, I'm often like, why do I struggle so much? Like, you know, I'm
00:24:40
Speaker
I'm an adult." And the Lord looks at me and says, what makes you think you're an adult? You're a child. You know, you're a child, you're a frail, broken man, and you and I are not peers. You desperately need me. I'm like, oh yeah, thanks for reminding me of that, Lord. Right? Absolutely. Now that's so, so good. Let's end with just some kind of practical things.
00:25:05
Speaker
that somebody can do, you know, for maybe entering into this season for the first time, you know, as it was mentioning before, there might be a fair amount of our listeners that already observed Lent, but there might be a fair amount that this is the first time that they're going to kind of enter into this season a more intentional way.
Practical Observance of Lent: Tips and Practices
00:25:22
Speaker
And so what are some real practical things that somebody could do if they want to observe Lent, you know, this coming season?
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah, so three things, typically, anyway, or classically, are observed in prayer, fasting, and Thanksgiving. So one of the things to just look at is, okay, so I want to build a plan, if you will, for this season that's going to increase these three things. I'm going to spend more intentional, deliberate time in prayer.
00:25:56
Speaker
And maybe I'm going to ask the Lord, maybe I'll break it up into two ways. I'm going to spend a couple of weeks just almost like approaching the Lord as if he's a physician. And like I had this image a couple years ago at the start of Lent, there's this place where I live, the church where I live, there's this really cracked statue. It's chipped, the paints faded, whatever. And I felt like the Lord said, that's you.
00:26:23
Speaker
And what I want to do is I want to touch you up. I want to refinish you. I want to refurbish you. I want to restore you. And so we're almost like putting ourselves as either sick people, which we all are, or cheap works of art sometimes into the hands of the master and just saying, Lord, what area of my life do you want to expose so that you can refurbish?
00:26:53
Speaker
you know, bring back to the original plan. So that's, that's an initial thing to think about in prayer, just like, ask the Lord, like, give me a spiritual MRI of myself. What are the things you want to work on, Lord? And that's a really important question, because otherwise, we'll go into Lent with, well, we do the things I want to work on, but ask Him, Lord, what do you want to work on in me? But then make sure that in our prayer, and especially in our reading of Scripture, that as we get, you know, like,
00:27:20
Speaker
halfway through the season anyway, we just start immersing ourselves and soaking daily in the stories leading into the passion so that when we get to Easter, we have given the Holy Spirit ample time to just meditate within us on what it is that Jesus did. So that's something concrete that we can do for prayer maybe.
00:27:46
Speaker
Fasting is, there's two things about fasting. One, Jesus doesn't say, if you fast. He says, when you fast. So the expectation is that as disciples, we are going to fast. Why? For me, there's always been two reasons. One is because you hear better. You know, so when you, it's like nobody wants to give the talk after lunch, right? Because everybody's just zoned out.
00:28:14
Speaker
So spiritually too, like when I'm hungry physically, my ears hear better spiritually. And Christians down through the ages have known this, right? So the world's fasting for crying out loud. We should be fasting as disciples. So it helps me hear, but the other thing it does is it helps me love. And so I think a huge part of Lent is whatever we're gonna either take on or give up,
00:28:44
Speaker
do it for somebody. Like, Lord, I'm going to give up wine. And I'm going to give it up not simply so that I can give up wine. I'm going to do it as an act of love for somebody else. Paul says, you know, we fill up in our own flesh what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church in Colossians. That's the principal biblical text for me always in
00:29:09
Speaker
Like Jesus is the only savior of the world, obviously, but he allows me to participate in his work. Like he wants me to work with him, you know? And so fasting is this simple act of love. Like there's nothing wrong with having, you know, a cup of coffee or a glass of wine or dessert, but you could give it up for somebody else. Maybe it's a family member who's walked away from the faith or who's struggling with something or somebody who's sick right now, whatever it might be.
00:29:39
Speaker
And then last thing, last practical discipline is almsgiving. You know, so many of us probably tithe. All of us should tithe. But almsgiving is up above and beyond tithing. And there's a bizarre passage in the Gospel where Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he's rebuking them and then he says, but give alms and all will be well with you.
00:30:08
Speaker
And you're like, whoa, where did that come from? So I think St. John Chrysostom was one of the great fathers of the church in the East. He says, you know, God is not honored by your fancy chalices and art and vessels in your worship.
00:30:38
Speaker
if you leave worship, and you pass him by on the street, and you don't give him anything. And I don't know about you, but where I live, I'm constantly surrounded by people who are in need. And I'm given all sorts of opportunities to be generous. So, onsgiving is, again, one of these ways which from the beginning, the church has just understood us
00:31:06
Speaker
This is a way to minister to Jesus, first of all, in his distressing disguise. This is Matthew 25, right? When I was hungry, you gave me food. And remember Keith Green from long ago? When did we see you hungry? He makes a point in telling that parable, like, you are not going to realize that that was me. And so we need to see him.
00:31:34
Speaker
in, quote unquote, his distressing disguise and reach out. So prayer, fasting, almsgiving, those are some real practical things just to think about doing. Yeah, so good. No, thank you for sharing those very practical ways, biblical ways for us to enter into this season. We'll link to some resources as well in the show notes for those that want to take a look at those.
00:31:56
Speaker
as well, but this has been just a really, really good conversation and I know you are incredibly busy and so I really appreciate you taking the time to be on Root Like Faith today and to talk through, you know, Lent and just praying that this is a really rich season for you and for our listeners as we prepare to enter into the Lenten season.
00:32:17
Speaker
of course, marching towards Easter. And so I'd love, I put you on the spot here, but as we close, would you mind just praying for our listeners and just pray specifically for them as they enter into this season, as we begin to set our sight on Easter, which is not too terribly far away. But if you wouldn't mind doing that, that would be great. Yeah, Father, we just ask right now that you would
00:32:44
Speaker
send your spirit upon us, not only at this moment, but in these days, which are about to begin, that we would understand like never before what it is that Jesus has accomplished for us in his passion, death, and resurrection, what it is he's freed us from, who it is he's gone to battle against for us, that he would show us those areas in our lives where we're not in conformity.
00:33:13
Speaker
with you, where we're not living free, where you want to liberate us, where you want to give us life. Lord, we just pray that everything we do in these days would be done very intentionally and deliberately in such a way that our eyes are constantly fixed on you. And we emerge at Easter with greater gratitude, greater awareness of what's happened, greater
00:33:43
Speaker
knowledge, not just in our heads, but in our hearts of the fact that all of this was personal, that you did this for us, that we're your beloved sons and daughters. So let this season be one that's rich in grace and one in which we experience your spirit just moving powerfully within every fiber of our being and emerging with greater joy, greater faith, hope, and love. We ask it all in Jesus' name.
00:34:13
Speaker
Amen. Amen. Well, thank you, brother. Thank you again for being on today. Look forward to being with you here in another couple weeks. But thank you again for being on Root Like Faith. My joy. Thanks. God bless you.
00:34:25
Speaker
Oh, that was so good, wasn't it? We are so, so grateful that you joined us for this conversation. As I mentioned at the beginning, we wanted to share with you a few of our favorite resources for Lent. So Lent starts in a week, so you have some time to grab a Lenten devotional or some other resource if you want to observe Lent this year with us. Let me just share a few of our favorites and I'll also make sure that we put it in the, we put them in the show notes. The first one is Journey to the Cross. It's a 40-day Lenten devotional by Paul Tripp.
00:34:55
Speaker
The second one is by a friend of mine Ashrita and it's called uncovering the love of Jesus and the third one and I did this one last year and just loved it to seek and to save daily reflections on the road to the cross by Sinclair Ferguson. So I'll make sure that I put those in the show notes so that you can check them out if you want.
00:35:15
Speaker
Well, if we haven't met yet, we want to get to know you. So be sure to follow us on Instagram at Patrick W. Schwank and at Ruth Schwank or on Facebook. And again, don't forget everything that Pat was talking about with Father John and the Lenten devotionals that I recommended. Those will all be at rootlikefaith.com.
00:35:35
Speaker
Again, we welcome you into our family here at Root Like Faith. And would you do us a big favor and leave us a review or rating and share this podcast with your friends. It just takes a second and it is a tremendous help to us as we spread the word about Root Like Faith.
00:35:50
Speaker
Oh, and be sure to tag us on social media when you do that. We love, love, love to see it, and we love to share it as well. We're so grateful for your help in getting the word out. All right, friend, well, we will chat soon, and we hope you have the best week.