Lent: A Season of Reflection, Renewal, and Realignment

I used to think of Lent as one of those religious things that only “churchy” people took seriously. You know, the kind of thing really devout folks do while the rest of us just nod along and pretend we totally get it. I remember one year I decided that I’d give up asparagus for Lent (which sounds noble until you realize I hate asparagus). It was the easiest "sacrifice" in the world. I announced it like I was making some grand spiritual commitment (though I did have the good grace to smirk when I said it), but I knew I wasn’t really doing anything meaningful. That’s the thing. Lent isn’t about making a show of things or finding a loophole that makes us feel good without actually changing anything. It’s about clearing away the noise and making space for God. And I wasn’t doing that at all.

Most people have heard of Lent, even if they’re not exactly sure what it is. Maybe you’ve seen someone walking around on Ash Wednesday with a smudge of ashes on their forehead and thought, Do they know that’s there? Or maybe you’ve heard someone grumbling about giving up caffeine and realized that Lent is, apparently, just forty days of cranky people. But what’s the point of it all? Why do Christians spend weeks leading up to Easter talking about fasting, prayer, and repentance?

One time, I was talking about Lent with someone, and he just kind of squinted at me like I was speaking a foreign language. “Wait,” he said slowly, “are you talking about... dryer lint?”

I blinked. I opened my mouth. Then I closed it. I wasn’t sure if he was joking or dead serious. Turns out he was completely serious. He had never heard of Lent before, and honestly, I could kind of see how he got there. If you don’t have a background in a church that observes Lent, “Lent” and “lint” do sound exactly alike. One of them clogs up your dryer. The other is supposed to unclog your soul. But I didn’t tell him that. I just laughed and explained, and we had a good conversation about what it actually means.

Lent has been around for centuries—long before people started using it as an excuse to take a break from social media or sugar. The word itself comes from an Old English term meaning "spring" or "lengthening of days," which makes sense since it leads up to Easter. But it’s never been about just watching the days get longer. In the early church, people preparing for baptism would spend forty days fasting, praying, and really examining their hearts. At some point, the church realized that kind of deep reflection wasn’t just good for new believers. Everyone could use a season to refocus.

The forty days come from Jesus’ own experience in the wilderness. He fasted. He prayed. He was tempted. And let’s be real, what He went through makes giving up chocolate or social media seem pretty easy in comparison. Early Christians didn’t just give up little luxuries; some ate only one meal a day, and even that was plain—no meat, no dairy, just the basics. The idea wasn’t to suffer for the sake of suffering. It was about stepping away from distractions to make more room for God.

So what does that mean for us now? Most of us aren’t preparing for baptism, and I don’t know many people surviving on a bread-and-water diet until Easter. But the heart of Lent hasn’t changed. It’s still about repentance, reflection, and realignment with God. And in a world that never stops moving, that never stops demanding our attention, Lent gives us a rare opportunity to pause and ask, What am I holding onto that I need to let go of? What’s been crowding out God in my life? And what would change if I actually made space for Him?

For some people, that means giving up things that have become too important—social media, caffeine, bingeing shows, that thing you reach for when you’re stressed. But Lent isn’t just about what we sacrifice. It’s about what we substitute, what we do instead of our typical time wasters. Maybe it’s carving out time each morning to pray. Maybe it’s reading scripture with the intent of hearing from God instead of reading just to soothe our conscience or making a commitment to serve others. The goal isn’t to check a religious box. Instead, it’s about creating space for God to work.

The first year I decided to take Lent seriously, I decided giving up sweets for Lent would be no big deal. It’s just sugar, it’s not like I was giving up coffee! How hard could it be? Well, by day three, I found myself in a full-on staring contest with a Three Musketeers bar. From the looks I was giving it you would have thought it kicked my dog. It was sitting there, all smug and chocolatey, daring me to break. And truthfully, I almost did.

What does that say about me? Not much if I’m going to be truthful. If a little piece of chocolate (granted, slap-your-momma good chocolate, but still just chocolate) had this much power over me, what did that say about my self-control? Or my ability to let go of anything? It was humbling. Lent has this funny way of showing you what really has a grip on your heart. And spoiler alert: you probably aren’t going to like what it shows you.

Lent isn’t about checking off some religious to-do list. It’s not about bragging rights over who can hold out the longest without caffeine. It’s about relationship. A real impactful relationship with Jesus.

And here’s the thing—His forty days in the wilderness? That wasn’t the end of His journey. And whatever we’re struggling with right now is not the end of ours either. Yes, Lent leads us toward the cross, but it doesn’t stop there. It walks us right up Easter Morning to the empty tomb, to hope, to grace. And that? That changes everything.