Lent – a season of spiritual spring cleaning.
Spring is my favourite season of the year. I love the first shafts of sunshine that begin to break through the dark, gloomy clouds that have for so long dominated a long, dark winter. As this sunshine begins to get warmer, life which for so long has appeared to be absent from our gardens and hedgerows, returns in the form of snowdrops, bluebells, crocuses, daffodils, tulips, budding trees and bushes and an array of colour. Wildlife also returns as those clever migratory birds who spend their winter in warmer climes return to our land and they join the mice and squirrels who have been hibernating in snug little burrows throughout the winter.
Gardeners, like myself, know that there is so much to do in the spring time. To begin with, we need to prepare the soil for planting. Also in the home, spring is an opportunity to throw open the doors and windows and give the house a good ‘spring cleaning’. The idea of a good spring clean is to tackle cleaning parts of the home, office, church or school that we haven’t been able to get at for some time. Inevitably, we turn up all sorts of odds and ends – lost buttons, old bits of soap, empty packets of crisps that should have been thrown out long ago, but had got lost in the midst of the clutter. It can be messy work and the dust is throws up can take hours to settle. But once it’s done, you feel so much better and the sense of achievement is tremendous.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning the season of Lent. The original meaning of Lent was ‘Holy Spring’. It lasts for 40 days, which reminds us of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. In the past, Lent was the time of the year when people new to Christianity were prepared for their baptism at Easter. Today, many Christians use these 40 days, for a sort of ‘spiritual spring clean’. Like the house spring cleans, the type of regular prayer and bible study many churches follow in Lent, make us to look at parts of our lives we may not have looked at for some time and may have preferred to avoid. Those who follow our Lent bible study ‘Let justice flow’ will find that this exercise will raise all sorts of questions in our minds. However, most would agree that engaging in a period of study and prayer is a very worthwhile discipline. Lent is a time above all a time to clear out of our lives all that is evil or unhealthy and to turn back to the God of love who wants us to rediscover him afresh. The prophet Joel puts the invitation this way:
‘Come back to the Lord your God. He is kind and full of mercy; he is patient and keeps his promise; he is always ready to forgive and not punish’ (Joel 2:13)
May you all know the rich blessings of God’s grace this Lent.
Yours sincerely,
Richard