Traditionally, the season of Lent is the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday (not including Sundays). It is a season for fasting and repentance, a season of soul-examination drawing from Jesus’ experience in the wilderness. This year, Lent starts on Wednesday, March 6 and lasts until Saturday, April 20.
For the past three years, I have engaged in a photo-a-day practice during the season of Lent to focus and deepen my attention to Christ in my daily life. Last year was my first year of creating my own list of prompts and this year I’ve created a new set of prompts. During Advent 2018, (another season during which I have practiced the photo-a-day exercise,) I experimented with words related to the body to guide my reflections toward Jesus becoming human. While crafting the Advent prompts, I realized there were so many other words I wanted to include but didn’t have the space for. So this Lent, I have continued with the theme of embodiment. My experience during Advent showed me how much more relatable and tangible it was to reflect on God’s presence when the words that have to do with our lived experience in human bodies.
Because Lent is a longer and more sombre season than Advent, I felt like I had more room to explore the grittier, more difficult aspects of being human. I have arranged my prompts this year around a particular part of the body each week – beginning each Monday with that theme word and fleshing it out (pardon the pun) for the remainder of the week. Sundays are all days for celebration and Sabbath – photos optional. This journey with our body begins with the structure – our bones – and culminates with the heart.
In my local community of faith, we are offering these prompts to people to follow as they please. Perhaps you’re moved to focus on only one word during the week, or one word throughout the entire week. Perhaps you want to pick a few. I do believe, however, that part of the full experience of Lent is the marathon aspect of it. So my suggestion is to follow along daily, as best as you can. Forty days IS a long time to maintain a spiritual practice. It pushes us to acknowledge our need for God to sustain us till the end. And for me, it brings me to a deeper appreciation for Jesus’ longsuffering and tenacity on his road to the cross. Committing to 40 days and then following through with it will feel uncomfortable at times. But Lent is just the season to engage with our discomfort. Because Lent proves to us that even in the discomfort, God is still there.
I also want to note that entering into a spiritual discipline such as this one is not something we muster up the willpower to complete. Spiritual practices exist as ways for us to listen to Jesus more closely. So if you sense Jesus inviting you into this, respond. And then keep listening for him each day. Today, what is Jesus saying to you? When tomorrow arrives, ask yourself the same question.
So, who’s going to join me? I know I need this this year. I just spent a week railing against my body recovering from the flu and I need to enter into my frailty to rediscover Christ in my midst. If you do decide to participate and want to share your reflections, please use the tag #LentPhoto2019. As per other years, I will be sharing my reflections on my personal Facebook page.
However you decide to engage this Lent, may you find Christ in unexpected ways and places, and may you be drawn ever-deeper into God’s transforming love.
Special thanks to Timothy Choy, of The Tapestry Church for designing the graphics for Lent Prompts 2019.