A sense of preparation is what Lent accomplishes. It keeps us from being surprised. And we do that preparation by 1. Choosing a direction. And/or 2. Making a change.

Jesus went into the wilderness to pray. God took him there. Forty days to choose away from food, and toward God.

We are, as humans, accustomed to things. We are habitual toward things. We are addicted to things.

We think thoughts, about ourselves and others, without knowing how we arrived at the thought. We feel feelings without considering how they are formed, or even without considering that they might be formed. We take actions without pausing to reflect on why we take that action, why we crave that result.

And our thoughts and feelings and actions almost always default toward our own comfort and relief.

So we can choose a direction.

• I want to listen more closely to God.
• I want to have more faith.
• I want to have less fear.
• I want to be more encouraging

And then we can make a change that is in keeping with that direction.

• Because I want to listen more closely to God, I will have less noise in my life, I will read more of the words he speaks, I will….
• Because I want to have less fear, I will turn to God in moments of fear and ask him “why am I anxious about this?”

That’s one way.

Another way is to simply go.

Jesus was led by God into the wilderness. Away from people, away from the distractions on the outside of his head, until he was finally at the mercy of the distractions on the outside of his head.

And so we can abandon a habit, like meat on Friday or food on Wednesday or music in our cars or coffee in our cups. We can commit to go someplace that scares us, like a weekly trip to the rescue mission.

We can follow God into an ark, into a wilderness. Without knowing exactly what will happen, exactly how hard it will be, we can go.

So, six weeks from Sunday, will we be surprised that it’s easter, that it crept up on us?

Or will we be pleasantly surprised that we are ready.