For many in the Church Lent begins today with Ash Wednesday. It’s forty days long, reflecting the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness. It’s a time to prepare for the new life that will be revealed on Easter Sunday. Lent is usually characterized by fasting, self-denial, and repentance.

Even if Lent is not a part of your religious tradition, I’ll bet you know about the struggles of letting go of things, self-denial, and trying to change your life. 

A collection of common questions often arise around Lent. What should I do for Lent this year? What should I read or study? What should I give up or take on? They are good questions but sometimes we can be overly focused on the doing aspect of our lives. What about the being aspect? 

Who do you want to be? How do you want to be? My sense is that if we get the who and how of our lives worked out the what of our lives follows pretty naturally. Maybe that’s why in the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6,16-21), the beginning of Lent, we hear Jesus say, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). 

Our heart follows what we treasure. We give our heart to what we value most. Where is your heart these days? To what treasures are you giving yourself? What do you most value and how is that reflected in your words, actions, and the way you live?

When we name our treasures we find our heart. When we name our treasures we begin to see, for better or worse, the direction in which our life is headed. Is your life heading in the direction you want to go? Does what others see of your life reflect who and how you want to be?

Some treasures are of lasting and eternal value. They enrich and grow life. They benefit others. They enlarge our world and make room for others. They are worth holding on to. 

Other treasures, however, hold our hearts captive and impoverish life. They diminish our dignity and the dignity of others. They are fool’s gold and we need to let go of them regardless of how much we think we love or need them. 

What if lived as treasure hunters searching for our hearts? We might uncover what we truly value and how we really want to spend our time and energy.

This is less about whether we are good or bad and more about discovering ourselves, recovering our lives, and becoming more whole. 

Learning to love and learning what to love, learning what to hold on to and what to let go of, that’s the lenten work that heals our lives and offers healing to others. 

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Image Credit: Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash.