On Ash Wednesday, we are invited to mark this season with intention. To follow a pattern of devotion that goes back to the earliest days of the church. This means these patterns are older than 95% of what we think of as “traditional.”

So what does “observing” a holy Lent mean?

We might say that we optimize our learning by attuning ourselves and our desires to God’s through prayer, abstinence, and self-examination.

It means halting the things we do on auto-pilot, taking time to listen to what God is trying to say, and looking at our spiritual selves in the mirror.

It is giving mindless or negative habits up and taking on intentional or positive ones.

But mostly, it is about intentional practices, like praying, reading scripture, and taking time to reflect on what God is really doing in the world.

That’s the what. Here’s the why.

This is the season we prepare for change.

To be changed.

To let others change.

And most of all, to witness resurrection in our community.

This is what we’re opening our minds and hearts to experience. Resurrection. God’s change. In ourselves, others, and our community.

So we can seek resurrection everywhere.