Benjamin Franklin is credited with many inventions. He invented many things we still use today including bifocal glasses, the lightning rod, the odometer, the catheter, and the glass armonica. Most of these inventions were not new ideas but were ideas that he improved and enacted. To that end Franklin was as much an innovator as an inventor.
To innovate means literally "to renew". This is what the Lenten season is all about. Lent is a time to renew our faith and "discover" much of the grace of God that we have been missing because we give so much attention to other things. Lent, like Spring, is not a time of depletion but a time of new possibilities through faith in Christ.
This weekend is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time (Remember to Spring Forward). Many believe that Benjamin Franklin invented DST. He did not. He was merely an innovator of that idea. Daylight Savings Time actually came into being in the early part of the 20th Century. Franklin believed that the day could be renewed during the Summer by maximizing the long hours of sunlight. Beginning this Sunday, think of all the wonderful things we do outside after 6:00 or 7:00 pm.
The pathway of faith is similar. Before we invent new ways to practice our faith, we must find ways to renew our faith. This is why I give thanks for the season of Lent.
How are you innovating your faith this week?
With you on Grace Avenue,
Billy Echols-Richter
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