Although Ash Wednesday was a week and a half ago, the Lenten journey is still unfolding before us. In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we understand Lent not as a single day of ashes, but as a sacred season — forty days set aside to return, to reflect, and to be renewed.
Many of us remember the feel of ashes pressed gently onto our foreheads — a cross traced in dust, a reminder of our humanity and our hope. We are formed from the earth and sustained by God’s breath. Yet even now, days later, that mark continues to shape us. Lent is not about a moment; it is about a movement of the heart. It is about turning again toward the One who has never turned away from us.
As Disciples, we often speak of being a “movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.” Lent gives us space to practice that wholeness. Through prayer, fasting, generosity, and honest reflection, we allow God to search us — not to shame us, but to restore us. We ask ourselves: What needs tending in my spirit? Where is Christ inviting me to grow? What habits or hurts need releasing?
Our life together centers at the Lord’s Table. Each week we gather to receive the bread and cup — visible signs of invisible grace. During Lent, that Table feels especially tender. We come not because we have everything figured out, but because we are hungry for mercy and courage. At this open Table, Christ meets us again and again, reminding us that love poured out is stronger than fear held tight.
Lent also turns our gaze outward. Repentance is not simply personal; it reshapes how we live in community. We consider how we embody compassion, how we pursue justice, how we practice hospitality. In a world that moves quickly past pain, Lent invites us to slow down and stand alongside those who are weary, grieving, or overlooked. It makes us into people who carry resurrection hope even in the wilderness.
If the busyness of life has already tugged your focus elsewhere, take heart — there is still time. The Lenten road is long enough for all of us to rejoin it intentionally. Begin today. Pause for prayer. Read a Psalm. Reach out to someone in need. Come to worship ready to listen for the Spirit’s gentle leading.
Easter will come in its fullness and joy. But first, we walk this sacred path — learning humility, deepening trust, and remembering who we are: a people shaped by grace, gathered at the Table, and sent into the world in Christ’s love.
The journey continues. And we walk it together.
Shalom,
Pastor Heidi