Space For Lent
Space For Lent
I recently heard a quote from an author named Brené Brown. Brown said, “hope is the most vulnerable emotion.” Hope is the most vulnerable emotion. When I heard this quote, it made me stop. My first thought was, how is hope a vulnerable emotion?
Hope is a vulnerable emotion because hope puts us out there. Hope discloses where we are going and, in this direction, we are declaring what we believe, or what we are believing in.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV).
During tragedy, pain, and suffering—hope can be a powerful aid. The reason I am writing about hope is because we are officially in the Lent season. Lent is a time when we pause to reflect, remember, and study to prepare for the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
One of the many reasons I enjoy participating in Lent is because of the hope in Jesus Christ. It is because of the hope I have in Jesus that I can face the death of Jesus. Lent gives space for us to work through the negative or shadow side of life. Many times, Christians are obsessed with the positive side of life, and there is pressure not to share or be open about what we are going through. It’s difficult to be vulnerable, especially in a culture of Christianity where we have phrases like, “I am too blessed to be stressed!” As catchy of a phrase as that is, the reality is that it cuts off anyone who is struggling or suffering.
Lent is the time when we can be honest with what we are facing considering the resurrection of Jesus. Instead of ignoring what we are going through, Lent provides space to give everything to Jesus. The idea of Lent is that Easter is coming. There is an end to suffering. There is a deadline to our pain because of what Jesus did on the cross for all of us. I want to conclude with another powerful description of Lent by Thomas J. Talley. He describes our focus as we begin Lent on Ash Wednesday.
To do this is to enter for the time upon a different sense of who I am, a more profound sense of who I am, achieved by disengagement from preoccupation with the structure which normally defines me. It is a matter of rediscovering ourselves by forgetting who we are and this forgetting, this turning in a new direction, is metanoia, conversion, repentance. Repentance is not preoccupation with an unsavory past, but the very opposite of that. It is the positive embrace of our helplessness as a moment of transcendent truth. It is the exciting discovery of humility, of poverty, of nakedness, and of the utter seriousness of our life in God (quoted by Webber, 1993, The Services of the Christian Year Volume 5, p. 227).
I am praying for you as we are all on this Lent journey together. We all have been through a lot! We have hope in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. Whatever you are going through—nothing is too big for the resurrection. Remember, Easter is coming!
