Lent is a season of signs, as are all the seasons of church year. It begins with Ash Wednesday and the oil and ashes drawn on our foreheads in the sign of the cross. The bright white banners of Epiphany at the front of the sanctuary and from on pulpit are replaced with somber purples and blues, the colors of mourning, the uneven ends reflecting the unevenness of our lives. Even the music changes color.

The point of Lent is that not only is humanity in general badly messed up, but that I in particular am fundamentally nasty. I don't live up to my own standards, much less God's, and I know it. Lent is about self-awareness and sorrow. In Lent I see myself, and there is more darkness at the core of my being than I generally care to admit.

The Sundays of Lent are technically not in Lent; they don't count as part of the forty days. That's because every Sunday is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, a mini-Easter. Yes, Lent is about self-awareness and sorrow, but always in the light of Good Friday and Easter, the cross and the empty tomb. There is a huge difference between sorrow and despair, and that difference is Jesus. We are sorry for our nastiness not because of what it costs us but because of what it cost Jesus, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. In Lent we do not simply see ourselves; we see God. We are sorry but we do not despair.

We paint the ashes on our foreheads in the sign of the cross.