I grew up in the Southern Baptist world, where Lent was a foreign concept and absolutely not something we did. Growing up, preparing for Easter was marked by buying a pretty dress, waving palms one Sunday, and singing hosanna on the next. For a church that loved to talk about the cross, the actual observance of Holy Week was surprisingly nonexistent. It was a season that prioritized egg hunts and the joy of the resurrection, but how we got there was always a bit of a mystery. The discordant approach to Easter filled me with more questions than joy. It always felt like something was lacking.
In college, I experienced, for the first time, an Ash Wednesday service filled with prayer, communion, and a time of confession, and immediately realized that this was exactly what I had been missing in my understanding of Easter. Something clicked for me that night as we started the holy journey of Lent, to the Cross and to Easter, instead of simply arriving at the doorstep of celebration. Still to this day, I deeply love Lent because it’s a time to tend my soul, to pause and reflect on my faith and the way we practice it in real life.
Lent officially begins next Wednesday with Ash Wednesday. How you choose to observe Lent is entirely personal, some spend the seven weeks in some form of fasting from various things, others spend it with extra focus on prayer or service. Some spend the spring season reading certain things, while others take time for retreats. This is a good week to take some time to consider how you might want to approach this season—what does your soul need as you consider your relationship with Christ? Each person will find themselves with a different answer.
Whether you are curious about Christ, or have been a Christian for a long time, this season as a church, we will focus on the words of Jesus, and what it means for our lives to follow Jesus. In our worship, we will embrace the gospel stories, working through the theme, Begin Again: Walking to Easter in the Footsteps of our Savior. In these turbulent and strange times, we will be wrestling with the question, “How are we called to live?” If Jesus is the Lord of our lives, how do we shape our hearts, our prayers, and our responses to the world around us? These are difficult questions, with unclear and sometimes uncomfortable answers, but they're the perfect questions for a season of Lent, an intentional time of discipleship, prayer, and fasting.
However you choose to observe Lent, or prepare for Easter, I hope you find yourself closer to Christ and with a deeper understanding of the miracle of Easter. May we arrive at Easter morning ready to celebrate a risen Lord, as deeper disciples of the Living God.