What Is Lent?

Purity of heart is to will one thing. –Soren Kierkegaard

I remember my first experience of Lent being one of absolute mystery. It was Ash Wednesday and I was at an everyday, Evangelical, Protestant church, feeling entirely within my comfort zone. But I soon became very uncomfortable as the pastor called us all forward to receive the “Imposition of Ashes.” I followed the crowd toward the front where five or so people stood holding small bowls of ashes. When it was my turn, a young woman dipped her finger into the ashes and made the mark of the cross on my forehead, saying, “From the dust you have come, to the dust you will return. Repent and believe the good news.” – a strange experience to say the least.

Lent can be jarring, confusing, even very uncomfortable for those who are not familiar with it, or who have seen it misused. But since that first experience on Ash Wednesday, I have found Lent to be an incredible journey of purification and redemption. It is a refining, refocusing journey with Jesus toward the cross. During lent we seek out the things in our lives that distract us from attending to God, the things that contaminate our purity of heart. We confess, repent, and return with humility and love toward God. During Lent, we purify our hearts and teach them to seek only after God.

The season of Lent is a practice shared by Christians for centuries. Since officially established in 325AD, more Christians have participated in this season of repentance than not. Even today, more Christians throughout the world (Protestant and Roman Catholic) join in the practice of Lent than not, and many find it a central part of their spiritual journey.

Traditionally, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Palm Sunday (the start of Holy Week.) We set aside these 40 days in our year to let God renew us and strengthen our love for him. We ask God to point out our sinfulness and work in our brokenness to make us pure reflections of his will. It is a season of death-to-self, when we deny ourselves, pick up our cross and find freedom in Christ. It is a season of creating space in our all too noisy lives where we may hear from God and find deeper fellowship with his Spirit.

Often Lent involves fasting. However, far from being a spiritual excuse for dieting, Lenten fasting is a practice of giving up distractions, or things we take for granted, in favor of turning our attention toward God. It looks different for each person. One may give up meat, another sweets, another movies, another coffee. I, for one, have found that fasting from technology rather than food has worked best for me. The question is, “Why are you fasting?” If you give up buying coffee, what will you do with that money? If you give up T.V., what will you do with that extra time? Seek the Lord, he will tell you if and what you should fast.

This blog contains a daily mixture of scripture, reflections, prayers and practices to help us take this journey together. It will continue through Holy Week to Easter Sunday. Now, if you are like me, you will often forget or be too busy to do the daily reading. Don’t worry about it. Don’t try to make up lost time, just start again where you are.

I hope you will join me, and Christians throughout ages and the world as we take this journey of purification together. May the Lord bless you as you seek after him.
-Ben T.