and welcome to the Pray More Lenten Retreat.

My name is Scott Powell.

- Hi, I'm Pete Burak.

- Hi, my name is Ashley Stevens, from Mountains Unmoved.

- I'm Emily Stimpson Chapman,

and today I'm excited to be talking to you

about how we can get to know Jesus better this Lent.

(mellow guitar music)

- One of the things

that is required in friendship is communication.

It's time spent with the other,

of a give-and-take of ideas, of love, of affirmation.

And so, our friendship with Jesus begins with prayer.

We pray.

We fast.

We give alms.

And we invite Jesus into all of it.

Jesus doesn't come and suffer so that we don't have to.

Jesus comes and suffers and carries his cross

so that we are able to.

It's not a "follow me and everything will be awesome".

It's, "Follow me, and I will give you the ability

to do what seems impossible".

Through the art of story-telling,

Christ sometimes descends into darkness,

in order to reveal the light.

That contrast, light and dark,

faith and doubt, the garden and the desert,

that's what we're going to explore.

We find our hope in knowing

that absolutely nothing can separate us from God's love

for our lives.

We have to entrust ourselves and our lives to him.

And the more we do that,

the more we come to know and understand who God is

and what he asks of us,

the more we're gonna seek to conform to Jesus.

Jesus has revealed to us what this life is all about.

He's shown us the path.

He's saying, "This is how you are called to live."

Christ wants to heal you.

He wants to make you whole

and he wants you to bring it to him.

Good Friday leads to Easter Sunday.

And without Good Friday,

we can't make it to Easter Sunday.

And that is why Lent

isn't just about us telling Jesus we're sorry for our sins.

It is coming to know Jesus better,

so we can love him better

and not just turn from the things

that are holding us back from holiness,

but run from them.

Like, full out sprint away from them

into the arms of Jesus.

One of my favorite prayers is three words,

"Come Holy Spirit".

(mellow guitar music)