Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, began a season of excitement and reflection for many Christians. Historically the season leading up to Easter has been a time of meditation on the frailty of life and the need to sacrifice our sinful nature to be able to fully appreciate the gift of Jesus Christ at Easter.

Compton The Psalmist speaks of the fragileness of life: “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” Psalm 103:15- 16NIV. Realizing that none of us knows how long our life will be, now is the time to be taking care of all unfinished business.

In many ways, sacrifice is not so much giving up something as giving yourself to something. The Apostle Paul put it this way: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walkingaround life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2 The Message.

Our preparation time before Easter should result in more than just a big feast on that special day. The Apostle Peter reminds us that our preparation is for a high calling: “But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.” 1 Peter 2:9- 10 The Message.

Sometimes I start to get melancholy when I think of how short life is and that it may be even shorter than what I am thinking. I am shocked back to reality when I think of an acquaintance of mine who said, “I am not dead yet. I am going to tell everyone how much Jesus loves me and each one of them.”

What challenges me so much is that this young man was dying of cancer. This very young man had a very mature love for Jesus and was inspired to do something. This same inspiration excites me with the possibilities of where Jesus will take me and each one of you as his “chosen people” to work and speak for him. May your Easter season be a blessing to others around you!

Chuck Compton is the pastor of the Flora Presbyterian Church.