Lent Reflections

One of my biggest gripes about life in NZ is how poorly the calendar fits our Southern Hemisphere seasons. Christmas lights make little sense when the sun doesn’t set until 10pm! And without Matariki, our winters are bleak and void of celebration, while summer carries almost too much fun.

Enter Lent. One beautiful saving grace. (I’ll get off my soapbox now.)

A friend recently reminded me how beautifully our seasons align with the Lenten journey. Down here, we walk the 40 day (+ Sundays) journey to Easter as leaves turn brown, cold sets in, and darkness draws closer. As summer’s light and lightness fade, the slowing down and simplifying of autumn gently scaffolds how we engage with Lent.

The Christian Calendar (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and a whole lot of Ordinary Time) follows the life of Christ in cycles of death and resurrection. Lent is a crucial season of dying, repentance, stripping back, and engaging our longing for life. Humble self-examination with Christ is a key invitation of this season. Where might He be inviting you to deny yourself?

For me, Lent usually requires real intention to engage with. March and April tend to be busy as the year gets fully underway. For those of us in ministry, Easter is often the busiest time of year. Yet it is precisely in these busier times that we most need still, honest reflection!

And if you’re anything like me, Lent’s invitation to self-examination can feel heavy, even guilt-laden. To take a good honest look at your life. How you spend your time and resources. What you allow to fill your mind. What stories shape how you see yourself, others, and God. It’s much easier to hide in the busyness! But I’ve found that God is simply ever present – almost chuckling as I skim around him. Exodus 33:11 has been a north star for me lately: that face to face, intimate relationship with God himself. Honest self-examination becomes far more bearable, even life-giving, when it happens face to face with Jesus. 

Fasting is one practice that helps me enter that space with God more quickly. Even on busy days, carrying around a dull ache of hunger in my body draws me regularly and powerfully back to God’s intimate presence. Hunger reminds me of my need for God. It’s harder to hide when hungry. And while experiencing hunger, I find myself agreeing that the world is not as it should be. I long for Heaven to come, for resurrection life to break through!

Alongside fasting, another helpful practice I’ve woven into my time with God during Lent is journaling through consolations and desolations. In his Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius names these two movements as a way of discerning what draws us closer to God and what subtly pulls us away. Larry Warner explains them further: 

“Consolations are interior movements in the soul generated by an inflamed love for God. A consolation can result from sorrow for one’s sins, passion for Christ increases in hope, faith, love or joy. In short, a consolation is anything that causes your intention to be focused on God. 

Desolations involve all that is contrary to consolations, such as darkness of the soul, internal uneasiness, agitations and temptations, feeling hopeless, and so on. In short, a desolation is anything that takes away from your attention and focus on God.”

Practically, I set aside time at the end of the week to reflect prayerfully. I write Consolation and Desolation headings in my journal, and note under each what drew me to God and what pulled me away, offering it all back to him and delighting in his grace.

As for fasting, the practice is simply to go without food (not water!) for a period of time. You might skip lunch, fast for a weekly 24hr period, or build to an extended multi day fast. Giving up things like Netflix, social media, or sugar can also be helpful acts of self-denial, but it’s worth noting that this is abstinence, not fasting. Both are valuable practices, but Lent is traditionally a season of fasting and fasting involves food. (Please enter fasting wisely and talk to a medical professional if you have health limitations, such as medication or pregnancy.)

As we walk the Lenten road to Easter, may we do so in light of resurrection life. And may exposing what is hidden to God's loving light replace your heavy burden with God's, which is light.

Sources: Journey with Jesus: Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius (InterVarsity Press, 2010), p30.