Lent Has Begun!
Today is Ash Wednesday, signifying the start of the Lenten season. My project for the morning was to write my monthly column for the church newsletter-- which seemed appropriate for Ash Wednesday since I felt like I was dying while attempting to come up with a topic. (No, I'm not overly dramatic, seriously.)I thought that, in order to celebrate Lent (that kinda sounds paradoxical, but whatever), I would share with all of you my column, since it's a product of my blood, sweat, and tears. Enjoy!*Disclaimer: This column is from a Christian perspective, and thus talks about Jesus. If you aren't Christian, I am not attempting to push my views; I only want to share what I wrote for a church newsletter. It's OK if you don't agree-- I completely encourage dialog. Also, if you have an aversion to reading anything about Jesus, this column is not for you.
When the month of March comes around every year, I am reminded of an old weather saying that was taught to me in grade school: the weather during the month of March comes “in like a lion, out like a lamb.” I remember that in school, at the beginning of March, we had a cut-out of a lion’s head—looking ferocious and scary to my 6-year-old self-- at the top of the class calendar. About half-way through the month, we switched the lion’s head to a lamb’s head, signifying the change in March’s weather. I remember feeling a sense of relief when we took down the frightening lion and replaced it with the gentle lamb. The lamb was much more calming and reassuring than that roaring lion.
Looking back on my fear of the lion now makes me laugh, but back then I was genuinely frightened. I would find ways to avoid the wall that the calendar was hung on; I would take the long way around the classroom, sit in a spot on the carpet from which I couldn’t see it. When I couldn’t avoid the lion with my usual tactics, I would somehow shield my eyes from it. For those two weeks in March, that lion made my life much more difficult than it had been before.
That one special day we took down the lion’s head was a huge emotional release for me. All the stress, all the avoidance tactics, could now end. It was amazing how one small cut-out could cause me so much trouble—and I hadn’t realized how much it had adversely affected my everyday activities until it was gone. Then my teacher put up the lamb’s head in the lion’s stead, and I felt even better. The lamb was cute, calm, and serene, with a small smile hinting at the start of spring. The taking away of the lion caused relief; the replacement of the lion with the lamb gave reassurance and hope.
Thinking about this experience in a Lenten context made me realize how Lent can sometimes be our own personal lion. It is never easy to face our sins head-on, to realize that we are indeed in bondage to sin. We may do just as I did with my paper lion. We may go out of our way to avoid facing our sinfulness, shield our eyes from it whenever it appears. Yet, just like my avoidance of the lion, doing this will negatively affect our life. We come to realize that we have to continuously keep coming up with new avoidance tactics. We become stressed and burnt-out in our efforts to hide from ourselves.
But then the lion is taken away, and the lamb replaces it. The taking away of our sins by Jesus, the Lamb Himself, makes us feel relieved and lighter. He has taken our sins upon Himself so that we no longer have to carry them. He has replaced our hopelessness with reassurance and hope. Jesus is indeed who John proclaimed Him to be: “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
May you continuously feel the grace of the Lamb during this Lenten season!
