LENT is the time between Pancake Day and Easter.

The word comes from the Old English, Lencten, which means spring. It is the time of lengthening of day, when the sun begins to warm the earth again and things start to spring into life.

In the Church, this time of Lent is sometimes thought of as a time of self-discipline. The luxurious food has been used up in the pancakes and for now we eat more austerely.

Some people give up chocolate or wine or reduce the amount of meat they are consuming.

For many of us, the time of austerity is already over – it was way back on January 1 that we restricted our calories and punished our bodies!

This seems to me a mistake; it would be wiser to extend our Christmas feasting to help us get through the wet dark months of January and February.

In fact, Lenten austerity is not primarily about what we eat or drink, it’s about how changes in our habits might provide opportunity to pause and reflect upon who we are becoming.

Unless we make an effort to stop and think, we just follow one day with another, moving from one task to the next, with our heads down in our responsibilities.

Having a time in the year in which we are invited to do something different gives us the chance to step back from the everyday and look at our lives with fresh perspective.

It is a chance to reassess our direction of travel, our choices, our motivations and goals. It is a chance to consider deeply what kind of person we want to become, and what we might do differently in order to grow and mature into that person.

The winter we are now emerging out of has been grim. It has been dark and wet and often cold too.

Sheltering from it in our homes, we have been watching the news more, which has frequently felt dark and cold too.

Emerging into the lengthening days, I’m not sure I want to join the buds and bulbs in awakening and growing; the world around me threatens to suck the new life and optimism out of me.

But an unsettled and sometimes frightening world needs people who are willing to become more self-reflective, more self-aware, more willing to grow in maturity and compassion, unfurling themselves out to welcome strangers and invest in the well-being of their communities.

We’ve entered into Lent knowing that Easter is coming.

For Christians, Easter is the promise that there is a love greater than us which is working before and behind and in all things, striving for more life and light and growth, bringing new life and hope even to the most dead and hardened hearts and situations.

May we use the remaining days of Lent to consider our lives, and to choose to spring up into more life.

Perhaps the Earth’s flourishing is showing us how. Perhaps the hope of Easter is breathing new life upon us.

James Gregory

Senior Pastor, Crediton Congregational Church