Journeying through Lent

We’ve come again to the beginning of Lent. It begins, as it always does, with Ash Wednesday. This service sets the tone for the rest of the season. It is a solemn service of confession and repentance. Ashes are imposed to remind us that we are the created not the Creator.

None of these ideas are popular right now. We prefer to think that we can accomplish whatever we set our mind to. We want to believe that we can shape our environment to our will. We tell ourselves that we are fine. The problem with this kind of self-sufficiency is that it doesn’t allow space for our inevitable failure and weakness. It doesn’t give us anywhere to go when we don’t live up to our own or other’s expectations.

The Lenten call to repentance and confession isn’t meant to make us feel guilty or feel like failures. Rather, it gives us a place to take the regret, the shame and the helplessness we already feel. It allows us to lay those things at God’s feet and go away assured of God’s love and forgiveness. It allows us to go away assured that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

I hope that you will take time this Lent to bring your burdens to God and that you will come to Easter with a light load and a feeling that you’ve grown closer to God through the journey.

Rev. Cordelia