Closets

I’ve been told, my cousin opens his closet once a year and removes anything he hasn’t worn in the last year. While maybe a bit harsh, it provides a helpful metaphor for the season of Lent, which begins this Wednesday, Feb 10.

Lent is a season to open our closet. To do so demands courage and effort, but it also provides an opportunity for tangible differences in our lives.

It can be overwhelming to open a closet, though, particularly if it hasn’t been open before, or in a long time. Taking one step at a time, one piece of clothing at a time, can make the undertaking less overwhelming. Remembering the season is forty days, not one, can also help us on our way.

Some of what we’ll find are garments that no longer fit, in either size or style. They may have once, and we’ve held onto them in hopes they will fit again, but now’s the time to let go of those things that represent who we were, not who we are. Maybe it’s a habit, a friendship, or career, but change is only possible when we're willing to let things go. In your closet, what no longer fits?

Some garments are ripped, or missing a button. Now is the time to take them out and fix them. Whether it’s a estranged friendship, a mistakes for which we have not apologized, Lent’s is a season to mend.

Finally comes the hardest part. Behind the garments, hidden out of sight, are the things we’d like to ignore or deny, from others and/or ourselves. In the dark are things we’ve held onto, things that seem less real when out of sight, but whose presence eat away at our souls. This can be the season we really clean out our closets. We can face the habits of which we are ashamed, can look at the mistakes we’ve wrapped in blankets of guilt, and question the resentments and stories we’ve been telling ourselves so long we think they’re true. Lent is a time to bring them all out into the light.

In the end, Lent leads to new life. Yes, it leads to an empty tomb, but we must go through the cross to get there. There’s no Easter without Good Friday. So, too, the promise of a clean and spacious life lies in our willingness to open the doors, look inside, admit, throw away, and mend.

Because of the grace we’ve already been given, may we find the courage to open those doors, do that work, and find the new life awaiting us all!