Coming out of spiritual hibernation
Exploring this Lent season how embracing death can bring new life
This is the question rolling around my heart as Lent approaches:
How are we stewarding death?
It’s a dark question most are not asking nor desire to ask, yet we experience death more often than we want to admit. If we think outside of literal death, our view of things that have passed becomes much broader. There is the death of a dream. Deaths of relationships or connections. The death of church community and the faith you once knew. It can be unmet expectations of how your career, your family, or your life would be at this point. It is also the death of our egos, the illusion that we can control, manipulate, and will our way into an ideal life. These are all deaths we experience along life’s road. Right now, those things may easily come to mind for you, and perhaps with it, the pain of loss.
As I write this, I watch the bare trees outside my window. The world seems to be blanketed in shades of brown and grey, and I find my soul longing for the colors of spring. Yet, there are still months of winter ahead and I prepare myself for another week of rain here in the PNW.
When I think of seasons of death in the earth, the trees are my greatest teacher. Each fall we witness their graceful giving up of what once was full of life. They know when it is time to offer the ground their leaves. Yet somehow, we get the idea we can hold onto what in reality is no longer living, and I am most guilty of this. I have attempted to hold onto, deny and distract myself from those things or persons that have passed on. Here are a few things that come to mind:
The death of certainty.
Finding my “dream job” or career.
Being a biological mom.
Many church ministries, roles, and my love of Sunday “inside” church.
The loss of friendships or close proximity.
Copious “vision boards” of where I thought I would be at 42.
My size 4 pants and small tops.
In all my efforts to resuscitate, even pray for the resurrection of these things, they have remained dead. It is then, in this coming Lent season, I want to fully release them and let them find their way to the ground.
If the trees have taught us anything, is it that new life always springs forth from those things we have released. They may not look the same but the dust of the earth knows what to do, just as our souls know even if our consciences minds haven’t a clue. So yes, there is life. I still believe this. But it seems, there is no resurrection without first visiting our personal tombs.
You may not want to go here with me, and I fully understand this. But if you want to walk this road with me, each Sunday throughout Lent I will be exploring what it means to release those things that no longer offer us life. This Lent season will be a time of letting go, grieving, deconstructing, and learning the practice of embracing life on life’s1 terms.
A good friend of mine shared with me that she has been in a kind of spiritual hibernation since COVID. Perhaps this practice of letting go can be a time of waking up, of stretching our curled legs, and making the slow crawl toward the light. Many of us may only see the dust beneath our hands and feet for a while but we will gain more strength as we move along this path. Trust me. Just as the light is stretching further into our days this time of year, the light of Divine Love will help us stretch our weary limbs as he stretched out his own on the cross. He knows death well. May we enter into death this season and find there is indeed new life after all.
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Lent begins this year on Ash Wednesday, February 22.
Traditionally Lent is a season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Most years, I find something to fast from and make sure I have a few dollars in my pocket to grab a Street Roots magazine at my local grocery store. This year, I am approaching Lent a bit differently. I am going to spend more time in contemplative prayer which I will be learning alongside you this Lent season. And I will probably have a lot of firepits too as I need to symbolically release! If you choose to practice fasting, it is a great way to enter into the season, and remember, each Sunday during Lent you get to pause your fast and enjoy a “mini” Easter!
A favorite phrase from Kate Bowler. She also has a daily Lent Guide free on her website that I have done in the past, and it’s a great daily tool for this season.