Heavy.

Ash Wednesday reminds us there are seasons.

Specifically, Seasons of Heavy Waiting. Also celebration, but mostly Seasons of Heavy Waiting.

Maybe you grew up with ashes, and maybe you didn’t. Maybe you’re a Protestant who thinks it’s a Catholic thing. Maybe you’re a Catholic who believes Lent is obtuse. Or maybe you’re in the ginormous category of neither or nothing or something else altogether.

Whatever faith you may or may not claim, hold onto your panties if you decide to keep reading. Because I’m going to talk about God for this whole, entire Lenten post.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the 40ish days leading up to Easter, the highest holy day of the Christian tradition, despite the fact that most of us western Christians spend more, plan more, eat more and gather more during Christmas, which is supposed to celebrate the birth of the Christchild - the same Christchild who was crucified (think Maundy Thursday and Good Friday) by the state (Rome) three decades later for preaching a gospel uncomfortable to church and political leadership.

It takes divine inspiration to claim to be the Son of God, after all. The bridge between the Biblical Old Testament - and its millennia of attempting to reconcile God’s chosen people (Jews) through sacrifices, commandments, judges, kings and prophets - and the New Testament - the story of God making possible the restoration of all people (Humanity) to God through one ultimate sacrifice, the unspeakable death sacrifice of the incomprehensible fully human, fully divine Christ.

And then the real kicker, the resurrection (Easter) and ascension (Pentecost) of Christ, which gave us the Holy Spirit.

If you think that’s a lot to swallow now, I assure you first century Middle Easterners thought so, too. 

Hence a dishonorable death by torture on a cross.

You can attempt to read all about it in Scripture, but get a good teacher. Like, one with degrees in history, language and religion, not the loudest, shiniest, most Instaworthy guy with the biggest cross on the block.

At any rate, as a writer (who disclaimer is NOT a Biblical scholar), I want to be relevant, and Ash Wednesday deserves some context to understand its relevance, even if, like me, you grew up in tradition where your church experience focused mainly on the celebration of the resurrection and relied fully on community Easter Egg hunts for cultural currency, because Lent is just so HEAVY.

(I am not anti-Easter Bunny or Eggs, I just have no idea how either informs my faith. It’s like Santa if you’re a Believer: Have fun with it, but don’t get confused.)

The thing is, Lent, in my opinion, is about the most relevant part of the Christian tradition. Because by definition, Lent IS Heavy.

Lent is the heavy SEASON of Christ’s temptation before the ordeal of his death and the New Life that Easter - Christ’s resurrection -  promises.

I mean, how many of us KNOW heavy?

How many of us have experienced or are experiencing an ordeal? A long, hard period of suffering? A time of endless, devastating waiting?

How many of us have prayed for or are praying for answers? Healing? Restoration? Mercy?

And how many of us have felt or are feeling isolated by an unseen illness? Estrangement? Abuse? Addiction?

You see, THIS is what Lent is about. 

It’s about the season of heavy and the season of waiting - the Season of Heavy Waiting.

And it’s about the knowledge that, because of Easter, there is New Life on the other side of the Season of Heavy Waiting. 

And that the Christ who knows the Season of Heavy Waiting waits WITH us. 

Lent means that Hope lives. Adherents to the Christian tradition believe that the Season of Heavy Waiting was overcome on behalf of humanity, and with finality, through Christ and the Easter story.

Friend, Lent is not about giving up sugar or cheese or caffeine. I mean you may need to, and let’s be clear that New Life doesn’t guarantee you get the happy ending you’re after in this lifetime, either. Run far and fast from anyone who tells you it does.

But without question, friend, Lent means you have hope during your Season of Heavy Waiting.

Read that again. And again. Read it for the forty days of Lent if you have to.

There is hope during your Season of Heavy Waiting, friend. And God waits with you. God is with you. In the heavy, in the waiting, and in the celebration, because of the resurrection.

Thank God for Lent.