We have entered the Lenten season. Last week was Ash Wednesday and we attended a church service where the priest dipped his fingers in soot and brushed a cross of ashes on our foreheads. The word brush is meaningful here because it is one of those moments where we are invited to intentionally brush up to and become aware of our own humanity.
Lent is the 40 days leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus. During this time, we as followers of Jesus intentionally walk in replicating (if we can) Jesus’s life of sacrifice, not just in the desert, but in all of his life, and eventually the cross.
You see, Jesus lived a very modest life. He lived intentionally preferring others and acknowledging the dignity of all people. Jesus was not preoccupied with himself or clothes or just… all the stuff we find so important. He didn’t live “extra”. He LOVED extravagantly, but his life was not bothered with fluff and nonsense. (For more on this I encourage you to read Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7)
I (dare I say we?) live extra. I try not to, but alas, I have discovered I am very susceptible to obsessing over the very things Jesus said the sparrows and the flowers didn’t.
This is a very good reason for Lent.
We can open ourselves to getting rid of the extra. All of what we carry can be heavy, messy, and start tripping us up. It’s good to have a practice where once a year we encounter the ashes of our own humanity and open our hands, letting go of what is not needed.
Some thoughts have been simmering in me regarding the workings of Lent. The mechanism that helps us walk this once a year path with Jesus.
I think it’s fire.
Yes. That sounds dramatic, but I think it’s true.
A fire was used to clear the swamp of dead growth in the spring where I grew up so the cows would have good tender grazing again. What is called a “controlled burn” is a fire designed to clear out underbrush and other unneeded stubble in the west so forest fires can be avoided. These only occur in safest conditions. Where a controlled burn is neglected there is the danger of out of control blazes taking out everything and sealing the earth from any growth for some time.
Moving into the kitchen, a fire - slow, steady heat is used to get rid of excess when boiling down a sauce. It’s called reducing. To concentrate something, you put heat under it until the water evaporates off.
These are the words appropriate to the work of Lent.
Controlled burn
Reducing
Concentrating
These are ideal for getting rid of the extra in us.
May this Lent find me yielding to the controlled burn.
May I be reduced down to where I should be.
May the concentration of Jesus be everything I need.
Nothing extra.