Today Dr. Yolanda Pierce begins her six week Lenten Devotional series. Devotionals can be found on KineticsLive.com every Wednesday beginning with Ash Wednesday.
by Dr. Yolanda Pierce,
I am a weary Christian and I enter this Lenten season with a weary heart. I am struggling with a religion that I can barely recognize, a faith that has been so twisted and stretched, that it scarcely resembles the teachings of Jesus. I am weary of the lack of love demonstrated towards our neighbors and the destructive policies put into place by those who claim they are servants of Christ. I am weary of a false prosperity gospel and those who make idols of material things while so many go hungry. I am a weary Christian looking to this Lenten season for restoration.
We often focus on the sacrificial aspect of Lent: whether we will give up chocolate or television or technology for this 40 day season. But our sacrifice is in vain if it doesn’t mean something deeper; if it doesn’t mean something greater beyond our ability to forfeit a favorite treat or fun activity. The Lenten season should turn our attention to divine expressions of sacrificial service; unconditional love; the tension between wants and needs; and how we daily live the commitments of our faith.
For the next six weeks, I will offer my Lenten thoughts for those who are, perhaps like me, weary Christians. My texts will be drawn from literature and music and popular culture.  My observations will be both sacred and secular. My writings will have little to do with the traditional road to Lent and the usual liturgical readings that are employed for this sacred season.  Instead, I offer a different set of Lenten reflections centered around the themes of sacrifice and unconditional love, primarily from the African American context. I pray that these words will direct hearts and minds toward the complicated path to Calvary.
[box_light]Dr. Yolanda Pierce is the Elmer G. Homrighausen Associate Professor of African American Religion and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary, and Liaison with the Princeton University Center for African American Studies. She blogs @ Reflections of an Afro-Christian Scholar[/box_light]
