I’ve always found it a bit unsettling that the season of Lent coincides with beautiful Spring days like today in the South. While the physical world is beckoning for us to come out and see evidence of new life and the signs that Spring is coming, the spiritual world is calling for us to come within and see evidence of the darkness that resides in each of us.
Perhaps that is the beauty of the season. Perhaps that’s the reason that denominations who haven’t traditionally celebrated fasting and reminders that “we are dust and to dust, we shall return,” have taken on the spiritual practices and rituals of the Lenten Season. Perhaps that is why even cultural Christians can be heard making claims of giving something up during this season.
The paradox of light and dark resides within each of us, but this season especially allows us to acknowledge and live into that paradox. We rise in the morning to darkness awaiting the light. We find ourselves chasing the longer lingerings of light at the end of the day answering yes to our kids’ desire to play just a little longer outside. We crave the light because it gives us hope. We fear the dark because it reminds us of our dustiness. We walk this season with the memory of the cross etched on our foreheads marked as imperfect and mortal.
We walk into the darkness towards the revelation that it is in our imperfections that we become whole.