Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023

Lent

Steve Garnass Holmes

Lent is when we go downstairs,
down into the basement of our souls,
into the dark, dingy, dirty places,
and clear out the junk we need to get rid of.
In Lent we don’t need to beat ourselves up.
We need to lighten our load,
bag up those fears and desires
that are leaking all over everything,
take our guilt and shame out to the curb.
It’s not easy to lay our hands on broken things,
to look deep into the gummed up works.
That’s why Jesus shines with his light,
shines so we can see our way down into the dark,
see to lift up the junk and hand it over,
so he can haul it out into the light
of the dumpster.
The light Jesus shines is good with dark places,
so we know even from the deepest hole down there
we’ll come out. The light will lead us. We’ll be OK.
Mucking around down there we get dirty,
and we come up with grime on our hands
and ashes on our foreheads for everybody to see.
But we’re free of all that blame and disappointment.
And the darkest, deepest cellar hole
becomes an empty tomb.