So, What is This Lent, Anyway?

Lent is not about giving things up. Lent is not a liturgical second chance for people who are not following through on their New Year’s resolutions. Lent is not about chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, or Facebook.

Lent is about being honest. It is an opportunity each year to recognize who I truly am, and to take stock of the things in my life that keep me from being my truest self. In my church, it is a way to be intimately personal in public.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. The ashes on my forehead remind me that I am tied to the earth. I come from the earth, and to the earth I will return. There are limits to my life; it will not last forever, and there are things beyond me. My spirit may soar, but there are things that are beyond my reach. It is what I do with this finite life that will live on when my body is no longer here.

Lent culminates in Easter, in the profusion of new life and rebirth. The weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter are filled with lessons, with opportunities to pay attention and learn more deeply about our lives, to be open and to grapple with what holds us back.

Each Lent is an opportunity to excavate at a new level. Some years are a step further, some years are a new beginning. It is often difficult to know which is which at the time.

For me, this Lent is about fear.

Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of consequences, fear of falling short. Fear holds me back from being my true self, from being who I was made to become. Fear is not my only challenge. It is the one I am facing during this Lent.

What holds you back from being your true self?

[Image by Eustaquio Santimano]