This week’s Ash Wednesday began the season of Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter. The Lenten season involves fasting and prayer as a way to draw closer to God. It reminds us of our sins, our need for a Savior. It prepares our hearts for Easter, by remembering the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection three days later to bring us new life in Him.
Although Lent is relatively new to me, people have observed it for centuries, ever since the 300s AD.
Perhaps because it wasn’t part of my church tradition growing up, I don’t always observe Lent in a formal way.
But this year—this year, my heart and mind are calling for it.
Why?
This Lenten season, I feel a need to pull inward, to examine myself more deeply. What I have seen in my life lately reminds me of these photos—my sins standing in stark relief, as trees against a backdrop of fog.
I feel a need to lament—for those places where my heart isn’t right, where it aches, where it’s hard. To forgive and ask for forgiveness. To be quiet, to speak up, to choose my words carefully, to deliver them in love.
When I lament what’s going on around me—what other people are doing or saying, what’s happening in our country and world—I have to be willing to look at myself, too, at my own heart, and ask the question: where am I guilty? What am I guilty of?
And how can my life better reflect the love, grace, and truth of Christ? How can my life better display the Good, the True, and the Beautiful?
Because He embodies all of these attributes, I want to embody them too, to the extent that I am able. I want to live a life that pleases Him, not because I have to win His love or favor, but because that is one of my greatest desires.
In the meantime, during this Lenten season, even though it’s uncomfortable, I plan to sit in lament, praying for clarity where I need it, forgiveness for my wrongs, and a deeper love for Him and my neighbor.
So that when Easter Sunday comes, and the fog clears, I won’t be the same old me. Instead, I’ll have drawn closer to Christ and become more like Him, even if only a little bit.