Lenten Rhythms: Just Breathe, the First of Forty Days

Image by Melina Kiefer

The church calendar reminds us that because we live under the rule and reign of the Triune God, there is more going on than meets the eye. Seasons, like Lent, that disrupt the daily grind and the frenetic doing, provide a change of pace, a reliable and rhythmic comfort in the face of insurmountable odds.

This forty day season encourages us to slow down and breathe in—to fill our lungs with the air that God creates and, then, to breathe out and let the details, the to-dos, and the not done to fall, scattered and perhaps shattered, at his feet.

Pastor Daniel Mason describes the gospel as not merely something we know intellectually, but as something that “takes hold of our whole being and transforms us from the inside out.” He adds that the Christian calendar is “one of the most beautiful tools we have been given to live into that transformation.”

So, over the course of these forty days I plan to press in more closely, to take a deeper look at sin and brokenness—the weight of which Jesus bore in his body on the cross for every.last.one.of.us.

Here, we will contemplate the journey Jesus takes on the Via Dolorosa—the road of suffering and together we will anticipate the dawn of Easter morning.

The Via Dolorosa reminds us that we share in the suffering of Christ. The Resurrection confirms everything we hope for—Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, sets us free.

I hope you will join me.