Lent’s lesson: Sorrow precedes glory

Mardi Gras has come and gone. New Orleans has experienced again its orgy of drinking, frolicking, and bead throwing parades. This year Fat Tuesday (English for Mardi Gras), was somewhat diminished because of the devastation in many parts of the city. Many were ashamed that the event was even staged due to the plight of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Others thought it represented the resurgence of life. For one, I can’t interpret resurgence of life by men and women puking their guts out on city streets. That’s fun?

Not much attention is given to that which follows Mardi Gras and that’s Lent. Lent is the forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday (when many in New Orleans are having a hangover). We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. Lent began March 1 and ends April 15, the day before Easter (the day the IRS expects its due).

More than anyone or any city needed the festivities called Mardi Gras, we all desperately need Lent. It’s the time of the year we all are to look inward and give ourselves an old fashioned moral, emotional, and spiritual housecleaning. It’s a time to take stock of our value as a Christian compared to our value - say a year ago or perhaps five years ago.

Lent invites us to search our souls and find any fault that harbors within our lives, thoughts, and relationships: thoughtful, soulful, ponderous thought. We who are the “microwave” generation want everything instantaneous, even our soul searching. It can’t be. Forty days is more appropriate.

Most “name it and claim it” Christians chose to avoid Lent because it is not necessarily a happy or uplifting time. It’s a remorseful time. We look inward and intentionally become remorseful of the bad stuff we carry in our lives. Most “prosperity” Christians won’t provide time for an honest inward look because they are too busy claiming a Mercedes Benz for their garage.

To look at it from another perspective, Kenneth Collins said many Christians are reluctant to bring to God their bad stuff because we feel our circumstances and emotions are un-presentable. Yet, that runs contrary to the life and times of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the one who gave back the Gadarene Demoniac his dignity. Here was a naked man who, while living in a cemetery, was screaming all day and night. Yet, it was Jesus who approached him and restored him to a place in society.

How can you or I think for a moment that if were to be honest to God about our pessimism, loneliness, and inner darkness, that he would turn away. That’s why he came and that’s what is so wonderful about Lent. It’s a great time for cleansing.

Lent teaches us that the way to Easter is suffering, denial, and repentance. Glory is preceded by sorrow.

Take these precious takes before Easter – that great resurrection day – and get sober from selfishness, learning the joy of surrender and selflessness.