As I sit here in my office with a space heater warming me as I see snow falling outside my window, I can't help but think, "Are you serious? You've got to be kidding me! It is suppose to be spring, not winter the sequel! AAAAHHHH!" You may say I am overreacting, but to a guy who struggles with seasonal depression, it is no joke. I want sunshine! I need sunshine! Come on, Spring, don't let me down! Well, now that I have gotten that out of my system, let me use my whining for something productive.
Lent is a season that asks us to stare in the face of our Springtime that will not come. Have you ever felt stuck in a winter? May be you are there right now. Stuck in a winter is...the teenager that feels very much alone, but who is also too shy to take the step that is required to make friends...Its the couple waiting and praying that this month they will discover they are pregnant...its the woman who is begging God for her husband to become hungry for God...its trying to force yourself to pound the pavement another day when yesterday was full of rejections...Stuck in a winter feels cold, long, tiring, frustrating, gloomy, hopeless...what words would you use to describe how it feels to be stuck in a winter?
I keep seeing Mel Gibson's portrayal of the Passion of Christ in my mind's eye. Jesus' back torn open, flesh mangled, blood splattering. The soldiers mock him and spit in his face. The long walk to the place of his crscifixion as the cross burdens his shoulders. The nails pounded in his writsts and feet. The hours of struggling to breath on the cross as those he came to love hurl insults at him one last time. It only lasted hours, but the depth and length of that winter cannot be denied as we hear our Savior cry out in winter's agony, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"
Winter is dark...it is evil...it is painful...it breaks one's heart...it crushes one's mind...it smothers one's spirit...flowers don't bloom in the winter...grass does not grow in the winter...winter is a time when things die. Have you ever been stuck in a winter?
What do you do when you find yourself stuck in a winter? Before you give your answer, will you let Jesus give his?
What is all the blood and gore of the crucifixion about? Is it it about Jesus love? Yes. Is it about his mercy? Yes. Is it about his suffering with us? Yes. But it is also about something more...it is about something we all need when we find ourselves stuck in a winter. This something we need for winter is not glamorous or appealing, but it is the only way to get to spring. Jesus in his humanness shows us how to walk through a long, cold winter in our humanness. The blood and gore of the crucifixion is about perseverance.
Friends, it still may be cold, gray and snowy outside, but be that as it may, Spring is coming! Warmer, brighter days lie ahead! Winter can kill a lot, but it can't stop Spring's new life!
Lent is a season of facing our "stuck in a winter" places and leaning into the hard, but, o, so hopeful lesson of perseverance. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" James 1:2-4.
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