March 1 marks the beginning of the long forty days of Lent. While the word Lent derives from the Anglo-Saxon word for spring, lencten, to get to a true spring or time of rebirth you’ve got to reflect, deal with issues, and simply trudge through that dark, subterranean dying time.
Nothing illustrates the alchemy of dying to live like the seed.
A speck of matter – a seed – seems dry and without consequence, but if buried in the ground it comes to life, eventually. God uses the very thing that contributes to sustaining our life to illustrate the key to life.
You must die to live.
You will literally one day die and be buried. But that comes later. Right now you get to figuratively die like the seed to produce “fruit” in this life.
It’s the very hardest thing, dying to self. For those who are beautiful, smart, popular, productive, wealthy, and ambitious, this seems like a pitiful waste.
Paul understood this well and wrote in 2 Timothy 4: 6, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering.” In Paul’s day, they poured precious wine on a rock as a symbolic offering to God. There was no way it could be salvaged or of any good to anyone.
This sacrifice is symbolic of surrendering your precious self to God for his use, regardless of how much of a waste it appears to be on the surface. While you sit “dying” like the seed or “poured out” like expensive wine, don’t forget that God values you and knows every detail about you (Luke 12: 5 – 7).
Surrender to the tension. Easter is coming.