Facing Lent -- Newsletter Article, 22 February 2009

As I write, it is Shrove Tuesday--the very eve of the season of Lent. (And, yes, we are having pancakes in our household this evening.) By the time some of you are reading this though, we will have already had our Ash Wednesday service with Community UCC. For some of you, the ashes will have faded from your foreheads, and we have already started those forty days (plus Sundays) that make up this liturgical time.

I have always been a little perplexed by Lent. It wasn't really noted, as much as I can recall, as I was growing up. I never felt the call to "give something up" as many of my friends at school did (well, the Roman Catholic ones during that era) and only later in life considered the possibility of taking something on as a spiritual discipline. (During my mid-20s, I decided my Lenten discipline would be to attend my church's worship every week. From that memory, I guess one could surmise I wasn't a regular attender at the time!)

In my perplexity about Lent, I've always kept it at a distance. What little I knew about Lent indicated that it was a time of self-deprivation and seemed even to verge on self-deprecation. I decided that I was self-deprecating enough that I didn't need any church telling me to do it more. And though I've never actually suffered through deprivation, there have been times when it's felt like I could see it from where I was.

When I can calm myself down enough however and consider the coming weeks simply as an opportunity for me to get closer to God, I can begin to embrace Lent. Later in this newsletter, you'll find an article which refers to Lent as a journey, a common metaphor these days. Indeed, I know I am always on a journey in my faith. Lent is a chance to ease myself, even if it's an almost imperceptible shift, ever nearer to the One Who First-Of-All Created; and in that movement I might gain the tiniest sliver of understanding of all that God can be and is.

Lent is not all that long, when you think about it; only 12% of a year. In that brief space of time, there is an opening of a window of opportunity, that allows the cool, fresh breezes of our ever-evolving faith to blow in. Breathe deeply...and take the first steps of Lent 2009.

Photo used by permission of the photographer and can be found on Flickr