Lent is beautiful. It does not impose itself as the penitential season. Still, it proposes itself as the season of new beginnings: just like spring that gives us the example of rebirth, of life, that points straight toward the light of Easter. (What would you have to resurrect between now and Easter?)
If you think of your life as a house, what would you renovate so that your heart might show the newness of spring with joy, forgiveness, and expressions of affection that perhaps we hadn’t given each other for a long time?
Any Lenten promise should leave a mark in our hearts and the lives of our families with the potential to become a long-term adjustment—that is why Lent also speaks of “40 days,” which in the Bible means: “the necessary time to accomplish a Godly mission.” What would you think is your Godly mission to the “self?”
This Lenten season asks us to commit to transformation; even if it takes more than 40 days. It will become a sign of new life that will leave healing marks in everyone’s hearts.
The tempter will tell us there is no use to keep trying, but God tells us we are his sons and daughters; we must believe what God told us and choose life and renewal, and then spring will come.
