Lent is early on the calendar this year. How can we begin to think about journeying to the cross and resurrection and new life when it is still really cold outside?

The answer is that the journey of Lent is not one that is just witnessed in nature but a mega narrative story that informs our lives no matter what the weather. Lent is a forty-day season of reflection for Christians. The "forty days" correspond symbolically to the forty years Israel travelled through the desert towards the Promised Land, or the forty days Jesus lived in the wilderness to prepare for his life’s work.

The traditions of Lent are derived from the season’s origin in ancient times as a period when the church prepared candidates for their baptism. It eventually became a season of preparation not only for new Christians but also for the whole congregation. Self-examination, study, fasting, prayer and works of love are practices historically associated with Lent. Conversion, literally, the "turning around" or reorientation of our lives towards God, is the theme of Lent. Both as individuals and as a community, we look inward and reflect on our readiness to follow Jesus in his journey towards the cross.

Dr. Marcus Borg says the following about Lent:

This is what the season of Lent is about, about being born again, about following the path of death and resurrection, about participating in Jesus’ final journey. To become somewhat more concrete, some of us may need to die to specific things in our lives--perhaps to a behavior that has become destructive or dysfunctional, perhaps to a relationship that has ended or gone bad, perhaps to an unresolved grief or to a stage in our life that it is time to leave, perhaps to our self-preoccupation, or even to a deadness in our lives (you can die to deadness.) It is possible to leave the land of the dead. So, the journey of Lent is about being born again--about dying and rising, about mortality and transformation.

I invite you to make this journey! What is important in your life? What are the values by which you want to live? What draws you into closer relationship with others? What is God telling you during this holy/special season?

I invite you to join the journey!

Peace,

Steve

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