Don’t Waste the Off-Season

I took a quick personal retreat to Ocean City over the last couple of days.

As I walked along the empty boardwalk, I was aware of the people making preparations for the busy season.

Visiting a resort town during the off-season offers a different perspective and ending my getaway on Ash Wednesday offered added meaning. Ash Wednesday is when we remember that we are dust and to dust we will return and it marks the beginning of Lent.

Lent is a holy season, a time set apart as an intentional off-season for us to assess and evaluate the condition of our souls so that we can make repairs and corrections.

This is what it means to repent. 

Repentance is more than confession or ashes on our foreheads, it is the hard work of recognizing that we’ve gone off course, that we have done damage, to ourselves and to others, and then taking the necessary steps to fix it.

Whether you’re a practitioner of the Lenten Season or not, the coming of spring is a good time to take a look at the condition of your soul. How is it?

Does it need fresh paint? Perhaps a full makeover? Do you need to tear down some walls and clear out some rot? Do you need to kick up some dust and ashes?

I visited a church in Annapolis on Monday that had a phoenix Bible holder, which would have been odd had I not read the history of the church, which had burned to the ground almost two hundred years ago and rose from the ashes.

Lent is not forever, it has a fixed ending when we sing our alleluias again.

Don’t waste the off-season.