A Little Bit More 

👤 Geoff

Oh ah, just a little bit,
oh ah, a little bit more . . .

So sang Gina G as the British entry in the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest. Quite forgettable really (except that I’ve remembered it) but in a strange way it reminds me of what I need to be doing as a Christian in the run up to Easter.

The period before Easter in the Christian calendar is, of course, Lent. Beginning with Ash Wednesday (that's today, 5th March this year), lent is traditionally about prayer, repentance, abstinence and generosity. Which is great! But when I stop to think about it, aren't all these spiritual disciplines things that I should be practising all year round? Drawing closer to the Lord through prayer; prioritising time with him above some of the other demands on my life and cutting down (or out) some of things that tend to get in the way; giving up some of my bad habits and allowing the Holy Spirit to get to work on some of my worst traits; giving money away, cheerfully, generously, sacrificially.

We might be tempted to think this doesn’t sound much like fun, but these are all things that will make me more fully alive, vibrant, aware, a real Kingdom person. My attitude to the penitential season is a barometer of how well I am doing at being godly, how serious I am about following Jesus and letting the Holy Spirit mould me, shape me and fill me. As George Herbert suggests in his poem Lent:

True Christians should be glad of an occasion
To use their temperance, seeking no evasion,
When good is seasonable; . .

. . . We cannot reach our Saviour’s purity;
Yet we are bid, ‘Be holy ev’n as he,’
In both let’s do our best . . .

. . . Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone,
Is much more sure to meet with him, than one
That travelleth by-ways:

I don't want to travel the by-ways. I want to meet with Jesus! Lent is an opportunity for becoming a more Christ-like Christian. It is about getting serious with God – something I should be doing anyway, but during the run up to Easter something I can be doing, as Gina G says, oh ah . . . just a little bit more.