During the season of Lent, lasting until Easter, our gatherings and conversations at Kairos Hollywood will be shaped around the theme "he must become greater, I must become less." This was the wilderness cry of John the Baptist as he proclaimed the arrival of Jesus Christ, the King.

Lent began last Wednesday - Ash Wednesday - a day that churches worldwide observe by impressing ashes on our foreheads in the shape of the cross as a reminder of the brokenness of our lives and our world - 'from dust we came, and to dust we will return' - and of our need for redemption and rescue - 'turn from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.'

Ruth Haley Barton uses the image of a messy house to describe the state of our lives as we begin the season of Lent:

Many of us have a hard time admitting that our house is messy. We have many ways of distracting ourselves from knowing truth in the inward being and seeing ourselves and our lives as they truly are. The renewal of our hearts and souls begins with a willingness to be honest about the ways in which we have given ourselves over to distraction, to half-truths, and to sin. It is the willingness to be honest about the ways in which we feel distant from God and to tell as much truth as possible about how we got there. (From Practicing Lent: Cleaning Our Messy House)

We embark on this journey each year and, as Easter approaches, it is a journey towards understanding the need for and the meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. As in past years, it is not a journey we are likely to complete this year. In 40 days, we will not fully understand the mysteries of faith or live a life completely in step with the Gospel. In other words, we will not have "arrived." This is neither the goal nor the purpose of Lent and Easter.

Instead, my prayer for the community of Kairos is that we will grasp a bit more firmly and see a bit more clearly that Easter is the story of God arriving for us and for our world.

Lent is a season of preparation for the beauty of Easter: a season where we, together each year, learn what it means that Christ must become greater and we must become less.