Dear fellow journeyer,

The winter has been warm this year; perhaps you welcome this or perhaps this is disorienting. In any case, as the earth sleeps, we will soon enter the season of Lent.

Lent looks pretty different for the diversity of folks who observe it. Some folks are more comfortable adding something to their routines/ lives to focus on God, while other folks remove routine items/ practices so that they may better focus on God. Either way, the idea is to prepare yourself spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically for the high Holy day of Easter, the day of celebration of the resurrection of the Christ. This is the day, which I believe theologically, that the Creator God gave a finality to Death (read: evil, sin, and greed) insofar as saying “Death does not win.”

Practically, Lent can be a structured time that one brings a level of discipline to one’s life which, oddly enough, can create liberation. I use liberation here to suggest a time where one takes a step away from the rat race that one’s life can snowball into in pursuit of the completion of the never-ending to-do list or even the pursuit of self-affirmation through external sources (especially other people). Instead, this Lenten season, what if we focus our pursuits on stillness, self-care, intentional service, and self-affirmation through internal/spiritual means?

As I did last fall and also Advent, I am writing weekly devotionals for the Lenten season. I hope that whether you live alone or with families, these field guides will support you in faith formation in your home. I invite you to take an active role in Lent because I hope this will intentionally create space in your life to focus on God.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday which is on February 26th, 2020. I look forward to journeying together through it, all the way into the solemness of Holy Week.

It seems like all is dead in winter, but it is actually just a time of sabbatical for much of creation.

Let us not be fooled into thinking Death has won.

Kate