When I was a kid, I used to hear the month of March described as, “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” It was a reference to the turbulent winter weather that was usually found at the beginning of the month and the more calm, springlike weather that was found toward the end of the month.
And it also makes me think of a different concept for March 2026: In with Lent, out with Easter. The celebration of Easter is rather early this year, April 5, and we spend almost the entire church season of Lent in the month of March. It’s sort of an interesting idea to spend an entire month focused on this one particular church season, one which doesn’t get a lot of excitement from the faithful but which is terribly important in our lives of faith.
The Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) only mentions the season of Lent twice and mostly without description. However, The Book of Common Worship has a wonderful section describing the season of Lent. Please allow me to share some excerpts from that here:
“ ‘Lent’ comes from an old English word for springtime, perhaps connected with the lengthening of days in this time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The season of Lent is a time for growth in faith—through prayer, spiritual discipline, and self-examination in preparation for the commemoration of the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus Christ…In many churches it remains a time…for the whole community of faith to reflect deeply on the theme of baptismal discipleship. Reconciliation is a key theme in the season of Lent—reconciliation with God and with one another through the grace of Jesus Christ.”1
Admittedly the season of Lent does not get the same excitement as the season of Advent before Christmas. We have a difficult time with Lent because it seems like we’re supposed to feel horrible about ourselves and flagellate ourselves about our sin.
I’ve never looked at Lent in such a negative way; instead, I love to embrace this season of the church year. I look at it as a time out. You remember those when you were a kid; you did or said something that wasn’t very pleasing to your parents and it caused a rift in the relationship. But you were just a kid so you didn’t understand the consequences. So, lovingly, your parents put you in time out to think about it.
This, friends, is what the season of Lent is all about. God has given us the gift of a time out to stop and look inside ourselves. We should, each day of Lent, examine ourselves before Christ. Is what I’m saying, doing, not saying, and not doing bringing harm to my relationship with God and other people? Am I celebrating the death and harm of other humans because I simply don’t like them or agree with their politics/religion/gender identity/sexuality? Am I ok with watching the earth fall apart with global warming and climate change? Are the cries of hunger of starving people falling on my deaf ears because they should just ‘pull themselves up by their boostraps?’ Do I celebrate the use of arms, combat, weapons, and destruction as some form of making peace in the world? Are the economic realities of rich vs. poor not a big deal to me because I’m well taken care of? Etc., etc.
The ultimate question we can ask during this season could be borrowed from the brilliant Benedictine monk, theologian, and poet Br. Dom Sebastian Moore, “Does God have regard for me?’ or ‘Am I a source of delight to the Source of my delight?”
Lent is a gift to us from God not to be ashamed and to hide our faces. Instead, it is a season of invitation from God where we are asked to stand face-to-face with Christ who is prepared to hear our confession and our desire to change. And Christ, our brother, who understands the human condition better than we could ever imagine, is prepared to grab us, hold us tight, and say, “I love you…you are forgiven…your faith has made you well.”
Don’t look at Lent as a scary season. Instead, embrace the gift that it is. Don’t beat yourself up and say, “O woe is me!” Instead, know in the depth of your being that God only desires your honest confession and reflection and God is ready to remind you of the grace you have received.
May we all have a deeply meaningful and powerfully transformational season of Lent.
1 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A. 2018. Book of Common Worship. Editora: Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 233.