Learning Lent

Lent is a journey I am invited into through the beauty of the Church and its calendar. This journey is a story, a story that has carried the same themes and motifs found over, and over in scripture; it is the same grand master story I am invited into today, to be a character, to participate, to grow. The narrative begins with the recognition of my condition as a human being. I am broken, a broken person who sins, choosing my selfishness over the Almighty.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of lent and begins my journey. Ash, a representation of death, forces me to accept the solemn event in life that is bitter death. Truth of my mortality, my deserving fate floods my mind, while Paul’s words ring repeatedly, “for the wages of sin is death.” I am broken. I am fallen. I need the Almighty. Somber truths must be established to better understand the story that is God’s redemption.

As lent continues, I look to the life of Christ, attempting to understand the mystical beauty that is the incarnation. A rich, mystery that provides me with a physical representation of the Almighty reaching his hand down to his people, and meeting them where they dwell, where they reside.  Through disciplines previously set, such as fasting, serving, and silence I reflect every day on the incarnation. That is the point of these disciplines, not to prove to myself I can be disciplined for forty days, but to permanently change, grow through the meditation of what the incarnation means for me daily. My once pensive mood has now become awed wonder at the way the Almighty’s love is being demonstrated.

Finally, I move towards Holy week, the point where full redemption will be realized. I am reaching the conclusion, the final end of my journey, which ends in the Almighty’s saving grace. Palm Sunday begins, and my story has reached joyful celebration. I celebrate the realization of who my saving king truly is. My final realizations prepare me for the ultimate act of saving redemption will be demonstrated through Easter.

In no way will I fully grasp the full weight of the resurrection, and this is a mystery I am comfortable never knowing all the answers to. However, I am fully aware the more I strive to understand the richness, and depth of this moment in history, the more I will change. I desire to more deeply comprehend Easter. But, I am aware I will never have a chance at understanding the Almighty’s redemption if I do not prepare my heart through the gift, discipline, and story that lent is.