The forty days of Lent is the season of the Church year that I appreciate most. Less flashy than Christmas or Easter, Lent has a sweetness that is the more delightful for being an acquired taste.
Sweetness is likely not the first word that comes to mind when we think of Lent. We’re more likely to mention giving up sugar or chocolate or the extensive list of items on the Eastern church fast. But Lent is a season where we abstain from things that are good to focus better on what is best.
The Bible tells us that God’s laws, testimony, commandments, fear, rules and precepts are sweeter than honey (Ps 19:7–10). But do I desire them? I know I should. I want to desire them. Occasionally I do actually long for them. But much of the time, I am easily distracted from that promised sweetness.
Because reminders of mortality and self-denial are a hard sell, there is no Lenten Santa or Easter Bunny. The season’s somber tone means that—bloated Mardi Gras celebrations aside—Ash Wednesday can begin a lull in our frenetic consumer culture. It is an opportunity to move into a steady and humane rhythm, quietly resisting the vain news cycle and the siren call of commerce.
My eight-year-old son has a relentless sweet tooth. His schemes for collecting, storing and consuming candy are impressive, not least at the kid “high holidays” of Halloween, Christmas and Easter. This past Halloween he toured the neighborhood carrying a blue Ikea shopping tote as big as himself. Before a recent birthday party, he volunteered to skip lunch to have more room for cake.
It may help to think of Lent like this—as an opportunity for enlarging our capacity to hold what God wants to give us. For a season, we quiet some of the clamor of life. And when in forty days (plus Sundays!) we move into the next season, we do so with a heightened awareness of God’s good creation.
But more than that, we have an opportunity join together to cultivate an appetite for what is best. Cut off from our normal delights and diversions, we can turn our focus to God and take some shaky steps toward trusting him—putting his promises to the test of life.
Take up the invitation. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8).
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