Dear Sisters,

A warm and tender welcome to you at this beginning of Lent. I'm so glad you're here.

Lent seems to be having a bit of a "moment," along with bomber jackets, the TV show Friends, and brown lipstick. Fashion trends aside, I'm wondering: Why do so many of us feel drawn to a season like Lent, in which we attempt to quiet our hearts, turn a few degrees away from the good things our sinful hearts have perhaps made ultimate things, and prepare our hearts to mourn Jesus' crucifixion and celebrate his resurrection?

Is it because life is so busy, so loud, and moves so fast? Is it because - in an era where almost any item can be on our doorsteps in two days, any answer can be found with just one click, and unlimited skips mean we don't have to listen to songs we don't like - we've lost some of the rootedness, the permanence, our hearts were designed for? Is it because the lines - between work & home, public & private, sacred & profane - have become so blurred that we've been left in a state of perpetual confusion, groping our way through a dusk that rarely leads to dawn?

Whatever the reason, consider this your invitation to exhale for the next 40 days. To exhale amidst the business, the change, the blurred lines, the perpetual dusk. To lay down the to-do list, the constant comparison, the 3am "Am I enough/Will I ever feel enough/Is anything enough?"

And consider this your invitation to inhale. To inhale God's deep, great, never-ending love for you. To inhale his peace, his mercy, his tender care of you. To inhale his power, not yours; his knowledge, not yours; his stillness, not yours; his justice, not yours; his effort, not yours.

Together, from now until Easter Sunday, we'll journey through this Lenten season in just a few minutes each day. We'll meditate on God's goodness and his great love in ways I hope fill your heart and nurture your soul as we journey towards the depths of Good Friday, when "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" and on to the alleluia of "He is not here; for He is risen."