Contrary to popular understanding, the point of Lent is not to feel sad or shameful. It’s true, Lent is meant to be a time of repentance (turning back towards God), as well as a time of renewed spiritual disciplines, of prayer, fasting, and reflecting on scripture. 

Such increased acts of devotion — especially fasting — may prove quite challenging and require great endurance. And yet the point is not to prove ourselves. The invitation of Lent is ultimately to grow closer to God as we are renewed, reformed, and refueled by the Holy Spirit. There is nothing more joyful than that! 

This movement towards the God who restores in us the joy of salvation is encapsulated in verses 10 through 12 of Psalm 51, which sets the tone for the entire season on Ash Wednesday:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,     
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,    
and sustain in me a willing spirit. (NRSV)

What if God’s purposes in Lent are actually for your joy? We often give up things that bring us fleeting delight — chocolate, wine, tv — not because God cares so much about them, but as a tangible reminder that they are not the source of true joy in God. Still, the relinquishing of these temporary opiates does not automatically generate a joy that fills the void.

Perhaps the deeper work in Lent revolves around the intangibles that stand in our way — grudges, unfair expectations of ourselves and others, and all the things we can’t control. If we can surrender these things, we might tap into the abundant life of which Jesus speaks.

I’m not sure what repentance and fasting might mean for you this Lent, but I know that we can’t do it without the help of God and one another. I know it’s never too late to begin (again). The porch light is on and the door is open. God always welcomes us home. 

I pray that we might embody and embrace that sense of “welcome home” this Lent in our church and in our lives. May we come before God and one another with empty hands and open hearts, and find help for the living of these hard and perhaps strangely happy days of Lent.