Lent is awareness that the father loves us no matter how broken we may be.

Lent is rest. You don’t have to perform. You can rest from trying to be perfect. One son built a life of pleasure and possessions to hide the pain of his brokenness. One son relied on duty and discipline to earn the father’s love. Both tried to be something they were not.

“Perhaps Lent is about paying attention. Perhaps Lent is about removing the blinders of our illusory life of self-fulfillment in order to feast on the life that is already ours in Christ Jesus.”—Chuck DeGroat