Happy Lent? That's an odd sounding phrase. The Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street with the point.

One of the chief purposes of Lent is to confront our mortality, but for the last two years,

our focus has been largely on avoiding our mortality, dodging death, largely hedging life against

our fears of death. In this cultural moment, confronting our mortality during Lent is an incredibly important

thing to do. As New Testament scholar Mary Healy put it, 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 Lenton

activities, like the marking of ashes, fasting, or giving up something, I hope you'll still use

this time to face

and ponder your mortality with an eye to Jesus' resurrection and the resurrection that awaits

all of us who belong to him. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.