A long walk. A really, really long walk, with blisters and everything, day after day after day.
That is Lent.
A long journey, not a pleasant trip or visit, but something long and difficult.
My family has recently come across old family records and letters and photographs going back to the early 1900’s.
My great uncle.
He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge, he became a prisoner of war.
As Germany retreated and the Allied forces advanced he had to walk across Europe in that hasty retreat. That was a long walk, with very little food, they saved pieces of rancid meat to rub on their tattered boots to help preserve them. Without shoes they were dead.
A long walk in the wilderness, in the dark place, that is Lent.
It changes a soul.
Jesus was in that harsh place for 40 days, tempted by the devil.
Lent is about walking with Jesus, it is about discovering who he is, being with him in his temptation, being with him as he faces the evil one.
Later on in Gethsemane Jesus asks if anyone will stay with him and watch and pray.
What do we learn when we do this with Jesus?
It is easy to turn Lent into a self improvement exercise, but this is really about growing closer to Jesus and facing the darkness with him.
What are the temptations in our lives that keep us from growing deeper in this relationship with Jesus? What stops us from walking the long, long walk with him?
We are American consumers and that carries many blessing and dangers.
As Oscar Wilde wrote, we often know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.
A long walk in the darkness with Jesus, that is where we learn what has value and what does not.
No more counting calories, no more cost comparisons.
This about facing up to our inability to love, to show love, to reach out, all the missed opportunities.
A long walk in the darkness with Jesus, that is where we learn what has value and what does not.