Giving Up Shame For Lent
After a sunless, snowy, and sub-zero January, the sun has returned to warm the earth and offer the first signs of Spring in West Michigan. And with that, the season of Lent - a word derived from the middle English lencten, which sounds a lot like the word lengthen, and marks a season of Springtime, even a Springtime for our souls.
As a pastor, one of my favorite services to participate in was the Ash Wednesday service. "You are dust, and to dust you shall return," I'd whisper, as I imposed an ashen cross on the forehead.
You are dust.
Years ago, I thought that was synonymous with you are bad. But, what if it meant something more like You are of the earth.
You are humus. That's latin for earth, soil, ground. On Ash Wednesday, what I was really whispering was, "Be humbled. Return to the ground of your being. You weren't meant to fly ten feet above it, exhausting yourself."
Beneath our buzzing busyness and anxious strategies for living resides another whisper - "You are not enough. Try harder. Fly higher. It's up to you." This is the voice of shame. It morphs into feelings of worthlessness, not belonging, and feeling useless. But however it shows, it strikes at the heart. We double down to keep it a bay. We even use Lent to give up things and get right with God. But in so doing, we sometimes lose heart in the process.
Lent's invitation is to give up shame, which is to say - return to the humus, to the humble ground of your being. You can't do enough because you're already enough, designed for dignity as God's image-bearer - full of worth, belonging, and purpose. When the prodigal son returned to the ground of his own being, fully humbled before his father, this is what he was reminded of in embodied symbols - a ring, a robe, sandals, and a feast - all reminders of belonging and belovedness.
And, of course, the symbol on the forehead - a cross formed with ashes. The Cross - an experience of excruciating vulnerability for the One who was called Immanuel - God with us - who came to us so that we could give up trying to climb our way back to God.
Lent is not a season of trying harder. Lent is a season of rest and return - a return to the goodness of the earth, the ground, that humble place out of which you might recover your heart and rediscover joy.
Happy Springtime.
Chuck