The Hidden Gift of Lent

The season of Lent is drawing to a close.  This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week and the final part of our journey of symbolically following in Jesus' footsteps on the way to the Cross.  

I hope that you have had a meaningful and blessed Lenten journey.  I know that my own path during Lent has been filled with moments of struggle, but there have also been moments when I have felt God's presence surrounding me and the joy of knowing that I am held in love. 

I have had more than a few opportunities to reflect on what this Lenten season has been teaching me about surrender, repentance, and what it means to empty myself of myself so I can experience more of Christ.  

As we come to the threshold of Holy Week, the words of Alicia Britt Chole offer a needed reframing of what this season has been shaping within us: 

“Lent is a much-needed mentor in an age obsessed with visible, measurable, manageable, and tweetable increase… Then Easter leads us in celebration of salvation as the stunningly satisfying fruit of Jesus’ sacred decrease.”

Lent has never been about spiritual performance or visible progress. It has been a quiet invitation to follow Jesus into places we often avoid—into the wilderness, into vulnerability, into the honest recognition of our limits. Along the way, we have encountered the deeper truth that the path of Christ is not one of constant ascent, but of sacred descent.

The Apostle Paul captures this mystery when he writes, “He emptied himself… and humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7–8). And John the Baptist echoes the same wisdom in simpler words: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). These are not just theological ideas; they are invitations into a way of life.

As Lent draws to a close, we are given space to ask: What has this season been teaching us about letting go? Where have we been invited to release control, certainty, or the need to be seen? Where have we discovered that God meets us not in our strength, but in our surrender?

Holy Week will lead us deeper still—into the shadow of the cross, into the heartbreak of betrayal and loss, into the silence of waiting. Yet it is precisely here, in what Chole calls Christ’s “sacred decrease,” that the seeds of resurrection are planted. The world tells us to strive, achieve, and prove. Jesus shows us another way: to trust, to yield, and to love even when it costs us everything.

This is the quiet work of Lent—to make space in our lives so that Christ can be more fully revealed. And the good news is this: what feels like loss in the kingdom of God is often the beginning of life.

So take courage as you enter Holy Week. You do not need to have mastered this journey. Simply remain open. Walk with Jesus. Trust that every small act of surrender is preparing your heart for the joy that is coming. For on the other side of sacred decrease is the promise of resurrection, and it is more beautiful than we can imagine.

Prayer
Humble us, O God, and teach us the way of Christ. Help us to trust you in the letting go, and prepare our hearts for resurrection. Amen.

Reflection Questions

1. What has Lent revealed to you about where you are being invited to “decrease”?
2. How have you experienced God’s presence in difficult or uncomfortable places this season?
3. What might it look like to enter Holy Week with openness and trust?