A Meditation for our First Week of Lent in 2026

Whether you paused on Ash Wednesday or not, something has changed. We now find ourselves on the journey towards Jerusalem with Jesus. In five weeks we will be standing with Him just beyond the gates of the holy city, waiting for His friends to return with a donkey. Yet, like His disciples, we don’t know what awaits us in the coming hours, let alone the weeks beyond. So we do our best to let ourselves lean into Lent. To remember this moment in the ministry of Jesus. His point of no return. In the moment his feet turned away from what was, so that the cross could be. So that all of us could become His.

I want to invite us during this first week of Lent to pray for clear vision. That we might see ourselves more clearly than before. That we might see with increasing clarity our cities, our work, and our whole lives. May this clarity grant us the gift of a holy grieving. For none of us, and nothing that is, matches the perfection we are measured against in our Christ Jesus. One of the ways that we magnify His Cross is through the humble acceptance of the ways we are out of step with the movement and person of Jesus. There is nothing we can learn about ourselves that His mercy and grace have not already known, seen, and forgiven. Yet, within our mind, body, and spirit, this understanding repositions us towards repentance, growth, and wholeness.

You are dearly beloved by Jesus with a tenderness of affection beyond comprehension. This is the foundation of creation. This is the love our God has for us all, and specifically for you. Without His love, we would still be dust, and yet this is not our fate and not our today. Let this love sustain you as you pray to see more clearly, and let each breath fill you with enough hope and love for another. There is goodness in every part of God’s creation, and we are invited to see the ash, help wipe it away, and celebrate the goodness that shines through.

I am praying for you this week.