About Lent

      Lent.  Every year I struggle with how to best approach Lent.  In years past I have reflected on how it is absolutely essential that we experience the whole of the church year, and not just the fun parts.  Lent is not fun.  Mardi Gras is fun, but that comes before Lent.  Lent is solemn.  Lent is contemplative.  All that solemn contemplation can begin to feel downright gloomy if you are not careful to keep in mind what Lent is leading up to.   Every year many of us give up important things during the season of Lent.  We give up candy, soda, movies, etc….We give up the little pleasures in life to remind ourselves of all that was given up for us.

    Some years I encourage folks to take something significant up instead of giving something up.  Which is better?  Neither, both serve a similar purpose of refocusing us on important spiritual issues.   But ultimately what is the season of Lent?

   A few years ago someone asked me what “Lent” literally meant, so I went to look it up.  Lent literally is an old English word that means “Spring”, most literally it comes from the word “Lenkten”  from which we get the modern English word “lengthen” .  It refers to the fact that the days are getting longer.  There is more and more sunlight the closer we get to Spring.  There is more and more light the closer we get to Easter.   If you think about it Lent isn’t so much about shadows, darkness, and somber stillness as it is about what it means to emerge from all of that.  Lent is about stepping out of the dark into the sun.  

    Lent should be about how we step from our shadowy pains and problems into the light of Christ and God’s love.  So maybe this Lent I will give something up.  Maybe I will give up the darkness that clouds the days of our lives.  I will give up darkness like worry, fear, dread, and despair.  Maybe this year I will do what Lent is supposed to do, and I will cancel out the dark of this world with the light the Christ offers me.  I hope you do too.