I love Lent. Does that sound weird? I understand if it does. But I like how Lent means spring. The days get longer and warmer, and the crocus, daffodils, tulips, and forsythia erupt in color. They relieve us from the gray landscape of a fading late winter. Their dabs of color remind me of possibilities, and they seem to project the opportunities my spirit has yet to enjoy.
What Lent is
Lent also gives us permission to slow our busy-ness down, to peel off the layers of life that are ultimately not necessary – mostly the noise, the constant noise coming in all manners and from every direction. Lent is a time of reflection, and a time of accounting for our mistakes and things we have not done as well as we could.
I believe we were created in God’s image because God was lonely.
Of course, God does have expectations for our behavior, and that is to love one another. That’s a tall order sometimes, and we often love ourselves, things, and money, more than our neighbors.
Lent serves as a container, or safe space, for self-evaluation and also self-acceptance. As we realize where improvements need to happen, we can return to God with a new purpose and knowing God always welcomes us back. It’s a reminder that we will not live forever. When ashes in the form of a cross go on our forehead, we hear the reminder,
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Many traditions, including mine, offer private confession, absolution, penance, and reconciliation. The formal accountability that these rites offer cannot be underestimated. I highly recommend participating in them, especially if something really weighs on you.
What Lent isn’t
Lent is not about getting down on yourself – we don’t have to whip ourselves as in days of old. A loved one of mine described twice-annual revivals that made you feel so bad about yourself you could hardly walk back to your car afterwards. Those revivals seemed to suffocate everyone in attendance. They felt so bad about themselves they sometimes felt hopeless. I don’t believe that is what repentance or even a season of Lent means for us. Lent, which takes us to Holy Week, and Christ’s death and resurrection, are about hope, fixing what’s broken, and making all things new.
As a matter of fact, after the Lenten season of reflection and repentance, during Eastertide, our worship service does not include a group confession, as we normally would. That’s because all things have been made new again!
Plan your year of faith-based action with me!
At Thanksgiving 2021, I launched a unique prayer journal. It provides space to explore our most comprehensive social justice gospel, Luke. The same anonymous author of Luke also wrote The Acts of the Apostles. In Easter, we will turn to Acts to see how Jesus Christ’s apostles and disciples began the early church. They were our first community organizers!
We are covering a year of Luke-Acts in 4 volumes. Volume 1 has just concluded, but you can still get it at a deep discount.
Volume 2 starts us off with Ash Wednesday and takes us through Lent, Holy Week, and the Great Fifty Days of Easter, or Eastertide. Each Sunday in the journal has a passage from Luke or Acts, reflection questions, and an opportunity to do some personal accounting of our thoughts, words and deeds over the last year. Word clouds and other drawing pages provide room to assess what issues we are passionate about, and what skills we have to address them.
While Volume 2 builds on Volume 1, you can still start with Volume 2. I designed it so that you can do that. In Volume 2 we are preparing ourselves to identify what we want to work on and why. And, the why is oh so important.
Faith-based advocacy is really hard sometimes
I won’t sugar coat it, but doing social justice work and faith-based advocacy often challenges us. It can be disappointing. Last year after going to DC to lobby my US Senators along with thousands of immigration advocates, we walked away empty-handed.
We did not even get our last resort option of allowing undocumented immigrants to “parole in place.” This means they are generally protected from deportation and must reapply every 10 years. This status does nothing to forward one’s pathway to citizenship. What bothers me most is that these same people are essential workers at great personal risk during the pandemic. Many pay taxes, and none of them get stimulus checks.
We are regrouping as we all head to the midterm elections. Now is the perfect time for you to get involved. Join me. Order the journal and learn how you can answer the biblical call to work for justice!
What makes us tick?
We must understand our passions, what makes us tick spiritually, and the unique skill set each of us brings to any project. Combining the skills of like-minded advocates makes for powerful groups who can achieve positive change.
People say to me, “I don’t want to be on the front lines, like at a protest.” My response is always the same, “You don’t have to be. What are your skills and passions?” Invariably the answer addresses some aspect of our project that we lack at the time.
Some examples include: making flyers or delivering them, ability to draw/paint, musical ability, writing articles or speeches, phone-banking, scheduling, door-knocking, doing research, doing power analysis, or driving people to the polls. I could go on and on, and every job is important and makes a difference. Every single thing we do chips away at the injustice we fight.
I wish you a Holy Lent.
