One of the most basic Lenten practices is to slow down and pay attention. This is a natural orientation when we are awakened to the fact that our lives are finite, and we might proceed differently if we were present to a limited number of tomorrows. The Lenten Season of Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday is an invitation to encounter the fragility of human nature, “from dust we have come and to dust we shall return,” which it turns out is also a doorway to experience the holiness and goodness in life.

Before we rush to the liveliness and loveliness of spring bursting everywhere, we are invited to linger in the season of winter, the cycle of death and dormancy. We come to the end of Jesus’ life and ministry and move through that story of his season of pain, suffering, and grief. We must do this before we can inhabit a place of celebration and an affirmation of what about the prophet will never be lost.

This is the calling for all of us… to slow down, to pay attention, to recognize that our earth, the people whom we call beloved, and our very own lives the way they are now are not guaranteed. Sometimes, we may say thank goodness for that – if we are ill, we may become well – or where there is injustice, the fruits of liberation may spring forth. Other times, we may fear the loss of what is – if we are able-bodied, it may be temporary – or if we are experiencing a great joy, sorrow may come. None of us knows what may be around the corner.

The practices of Lent – of prayer, of fasting, and of giving – invite us to be willing to sacrifice and let go of exactly what is for the sake of finding some solid footing we can hold onto whether we are on firm or shaky ground. We are invited to center on what matters most and to relinquish what keeps us busy and distracted from it. Lent is about cultivating a quality of focus on the practices that reconnect us to more abundant life, healing, and wholeness.

We can give up foods that have a carbon heavy footprint. We can give up social media if it is taking us away from lifegiving pursuits. We may even find that it is in the giving up of something we thought was a source of pleasure that we reconnect with a source of meaning and hope that is less fleeting.

So, let us learn to savor this liminal time of early spring where winter may still linger as we feel the warmth of the sun for a day or two intermingled with chillier days. For it is in this moment that we can appreciate both the fragility and the splendor of life. May this time work its way into our spirits, so that we may be able to both seize and savor whatever number of days ahead are ours to claim.

In faith,

Rev. Alison