Happy Lent. That's an odd-sounding phrase.

One of the chief purposes of Lent, after all, is to confront our mortality.

For the last two years, our focus has been on avoiding our mortality, dodging death, and largely hedging life against our fears of death. In this cultural moment, confronting our mortality during Lent is incredibly important.

As New Testament scholar Mary Healy said, "We instinctively resist and recoil from everything that reminds us of our mortality—pain, deprivation, weakness, criticism, failure. This paralyzing fear ... leads to various forms of escapism and addiction, induces us to grasp the false security nets proffered by Satan, and keeps us from pursuing the will of God with freedom, peace, and confidence."

Whether or not you typically participate in traditional Lenten activities—like the marking of ashes, fasting, or giving up something—I hope you'll still use these 40 days to face and ponder your mortality, with an eye to Jesus' resurrection, and the resurrection that awaits all of us who belong to Him.