By the Way: Lent is a kind of spring-cleaning for the soul

By Medicine Hat News on March 9, 2019.

Lent, the 40-day season before Easter, takes its name from the lengthening of days that announce the arrival of spring. With longer days we expect bright sunshine and warmer temperatures.

With the unrelenting cold of the last month or so we seem to be especially anticipating the thaw and the melting! I eagerly look forward to those first warm days when we can open up the windows and let the fresh spring air blow into our house after months of hunkering down. The warm breeze is a refreshing sigh of relief.

Lent often has a reputation for being a dour, gloomy time of self-denial. If we practice giving up something, it’s usually rich foods like desserts or sweets or chocolate.

But just as spring allows us to open up the windows of our homes and let the fresh air in, Lent is a kind of spring-cleaning for the soul, where we have a chance to take stock of our lives and our relationships: with God and with the people around us. We can reflect on what’s important to us, what we spend our time doing, what we wish we could do with our time instead – what things give purpose and meaning to our lives, and what saps the energy and purpose from us.

Those are not necessarily easy questions to answer, but it’s not all doom and gloom, either. By opening up the (metaphorical) windows of our souls, we can allow the fresh breezes of the Holy Spirit into our lives – and God’s power to bring transformation and change.

Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). He always has a way of getting down to the heart of the matter, pointing out that where we put our focus becomes the centre of our lives. Sometimes that focus is life-giving and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes what we spend our time doing is more habit than anything. And we often make the mistake of treasuring those things that we think are important but don’t last in the end.

The story that we rehearse through Lent of Jesus’ life and teachings, and ultimately of his trial, death and resurrection, centres on God’s amazing power to transform human life – our lives. 

So as the days lengthen and the warm breezes arrive and we start airing out our homes; we can also allow God to bring some fresh air into our lives and relationships. Generosity, forgiveness, compassion – these are are all God-given gifts to embrace this Lent: good for the soul, and good for living in community with one another, too.

Rev. Jeff Decelle is pastor at Unity Lutheran Church.

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