EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Embrace Lent as a challenge

By The Rev. Chris Eng
Special to The Advertiser

Lent began with Ash Wednesday and concludes with Easter Sunday.

The traditional service of ashes, where the cross on one's forehead has been fashioned from palm leaves and slips of paper burned into ash, allows Christians to enter into a time of introspection and contemplation. On the slips of paper have been written the concerns of the season that include just about any problem, issue or expectation.

After 40 days, each pilgrim hopes to climb to the height of the religious season in the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, who becomes the Christ. Lent is a time of reflection and prayer and vicariously experiencing the passion or sufferings of Jesus.

Who among us has not experienced disappointment, loss, grief, sadness and even despair? It is for this precise reason that Lent appeals to many, for it is a time to embrace the empty spaces.

The hunger in our soul seems to propel us towards our goal of having everything. Here is where Lent is presented as an attractive alternative. As the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us: "For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven ... a time to be born and a time to die."

If there is a time to embrace all that life has to offer, there must also be a corresponding time to embrace all that life seems to have taken away. Some Christians derive satisfaction from depriving themselves of certain luxuries in order that resources can be directed toward those less fortunate. Others strive instead to do something positive by visiting the sick and lonely or comforting the grief-stricken.

Christians, through these traditions, experience the true meaning of Lent, which is to return to God's purposes for humankind — values such as love, justice, peace, reconciliation and forgiveness.

The challenge of Lent is to carry on with our lives with a deeper sense that what may appear on the surface may not in fact be what exists below. The person who may be having a difficult time may in fact be growing spiritually while the individual who appears happy may be stagnating.

In Lent, we are aware that something can and may happen which will transform us in a profound way. It could be as simple as realizing that we have all that we really need and we simply have not noticed it. Or it could be that we have been very depressed lately because of some loss only to realize that others are going through similar straits. It is as we share our struggles of life with others that we may realize that God, too, "has shared our common lot."

Instead of being distant, the creator is actually very close to us, as close as our breath. But we must listen and wait. When we least expect it, our emptiness is filled.

The Rev. Chris Eng is pastor of the Waipahu United Church of Christ.

Expressions of Faith, a weekly column, welcomes written works, 500-600 words, by people active in faith organizations. E-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted to The Advertiser may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.