William Powell Tuck tells in his book, The Way for All Season, of a church where at the conclusion of a powerful and inspirational service, the congregation joined in singing the hymn, "I Surrender All." At the end of the hymn a young man jumped to feet and shouted, "You people don't mean a word of what you say! You sing, "I surrender all to Jesus," "Where He leads Me I will Follow," "Trust and Obey," and you don't believe a word of it. How many of you are willing to follow, surrender, trust and obey? How many?

The congregation sat stunned under the impact of his words, people were too shocked to even dismiss the young man as just another messed up kid. They were haunted by the question, speechless, until the youth leader, walked up to the podium and announced: "The following dramatic presentation was brought to you by the Youth Group." It was only then that the congregation let out a collective sigh of relief. I imagine, that more than one member thought, "Aren't those youth something" without ever giving the question they had raised another thought.

Do we really want to follow wherever Christ will lead us? Have we surrendered all to Jesus? Have we taken up the cross as our own? These tough questions are the questions of Lent.