The season of Lent beckons us to see what we are clinging to. The imagery of this season, therefore, is frequently stark.

These days draw us into a wilderness in which we can more readily see what we have shaped our daily lives around: habits, practices, possessions, commitments, conflicts, relationships—all the stuff that we give ourselves to in a way that sometimes becomes more instinctual than intentional. Much as Jesus went into the desert to pray and fast for forty days.

Lent offers us a landscape that calls us to look at our lives from a different perspective, to perceive what is essential and what is extraneous.