Bless the Lent we Actually Have
by Kate Bowler

Sometimes we wait. Spiritually, I mean. We just wait. And wait. Maybe something will happen?

In the meantime, our days are complicated by feelings that don’t seem altogether very spiritual. Deep annoyance. Rehearsals of old fights. Anger at friends who are, in our defense, pretty frustrating sometimes. Our bodies ache. We are consumed by somebody else’s problems, and we are fairly certain their lives are rushing toward despair.

So we wait. At least I do. I assume that in some future day I will feel the truth of my spiritual belief that God is with us. That God never leaves. That God’s presence is best (and I can’t prove that this is theologically true) on bad days. When life is headed downhill, I tend to wait.

When Lent rolls around every year, we are offered a chance to stop waiting. We are in the part of the story when Jesus is an arrow pointed straight at his own end. He will die. But first he will suffer and be betrayed; religious and political structures will conspire and conform to great evil; nothing will be peace on earth or goodwill to all humankind. No wise men and starry nights. It’s misery. And it should make us pause. That is where we meet Jesus. We meet him on his way down.

Lent is our annual rehearsal of the cosmic moment when Jesus’ suffering and death and resurrection will change how we experience death. Death will not be the defining truth about us. Someday we will be freed from the gorgeous and horrible limitations of our human lives, and we will live forever with God (which is VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO IMAGINE. But it’s the truth.). But first Jesus suffers and dies. We walk with him. And he walks with us.

Jesus will walk with us through whatever kind of Lenten day you are having. The lovely one. The garbage one. The one that barely seems like it counted at all. As we toggle through every kind of emotion—boredom, devastation, happiness, irritation—we want to say: bless this Lent.

This little guide is your invitation to bless whatever this season is actually bringing you. So let’s stop waiting. This is the one we have. Let’s bless it all.