I heard a preacher say once, “In our western culture it is a form of treason to be unhappy." In fact one of the few places left in society where you can be free to express openly your pain, suffering and misery is in a therapy session after which we are encouraged to medicate until those nasty bad feelings go away... for good!
If there was ever a time and place where we need a season of Lent it is most certainly now. So I have eagerly set out on my journey of Lent this year and I have not been disappointed! (or maybe I should say I have found disappointment?)
I've believe that this season of lent has become for me a dark place. The church calendar calls the 40 days prior to resurrection, "Lenten" which comes from the Latin word meaning "40". Despite its "creative" name it is not meant to be a happy season. It is meant to commemorate the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. At the end of which Jesus goes head to head with his (and our) mortal enemy Satan and defeats him with the Word of God. Lent, is meant to take us into the dark places of our lives; it is both a sober and somber time where we are encouraged to explore the parts of ourselves that we tend to hide from, ignore and even despise. The idea is that it should therefore set out a counterpoint or better a contrast to the heightened sense of joy, celebration and power that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ known as Easter.
Something powerful has surfaced during these darkened days. I have discovered it is OK to be sad about the things of my life that are displeasing to me. The things which I believe affect the joy of God's wonderful gift of salvation to me; the things which decrease my sense of the presence of God in my life. It is OK, not because some morbid sense of wallowing in my disparity or self pity, but rather it is a place where I find God there! He is already there. He is waiting for me to come and shine his light on these dark places, to experience his light push away darkness, to dislodge it from my soul and banish it from there.
I know it has only been a few days, well a week to be exact, since I have started my journey but it is already having this wonderfully unsettling affect upon areas of my life that normally I am complacent about.
I'm sure there will be more to come about this later as I journey along in my season of Lent. I am already anticipating with greater expectancy the glory and wonder and majesty of Jesus Christ bursting forth from darkness, from the tomb, to absolute and indescribable joy and light
