Share an honest answer: 'I felt like Lent'

Published: March 15, 2016

By Cackie Upchurch

A four word theology of grace: “I feel like Lent!”

A dear friend is still recovering from joint replacement surgery and is adjusting to a new computer program necessary for her work, so when I asked how she was doing, her response was simple and powerful: "I feel like Lent!"

We might conclude from that proclamation that she feels penitent or somber. But maybe it’s not quite either of those. She’s a positive person, a self-starter, a person whose life of faith has managed to touch the real situations of living -- personal loss, care for an aging parent, the joys and challenges of a large family, financial challenges; you know, the whole gamut. Saying she feels like Lent is not despairing. It’s real.

Maybe we can only feel like Lent if we know what Easter feels like, if we believe deep down in our souls that life comes from death and healing follows suffering. Maybe that’s why Lent contains the grace within it to help us believe that the stone will be rolled away.

Cackie Upchurch is the director of Little Rock Scripture Study.