Lent is a season of renewal. The word means "Spring" or, more precisely, "lengthening of days." It comes during that time of the year when the growing sunlight precedes the greening and flowering of the earth. There is also some ice and mud and cold wind that comes along with the lengthening sunlight.

In the Christian life, Lent is a time of renewing the soul that precedes the victory of Christian living. There is some difficulty and some self-denial that comes with the renewal. The narrative that accompanies this season of renewal is that of Jesus facing the cross. It is the ministry of Jesus from the Transfiguration to the entry into Jerusalem. In these chapters Jesus speaks of death and rising again, and his ministry is less public. He experiences rejection, misunderstanding and the falling away of many. Why do we read this story in a season of renewal? Why not a story of sunshine and great success?

The tradition of the church has been to connect the Lenten season to the practice of the disciplines of the spiritual life: Bible reading, prayer, fasting, confession of sin, giving to the poor, and self-denial. In the early church this season of preparation was a time for the testing of the faith and life of those who would be baptized on Easter morning. In the history of the Western Church, Lent coincided on the calendar with late winter, a time when food supplies might be running low and perhaps a time of increased sickness and even death. This season increased the need to depend on God.

Our contemporary American society now fills this late winter time with frenzied activity. It is the time of high school basketball tournaments, and a tournament for university teams called "March Madness." For baseball fans, there is spring training. For families there is the get-away for spring vacation. Early March also seems to be a time of music contests and adjudications for students, and for a host of creative team competitions such as "History Day" and "Odyssey of the Mind." This is a time of high energy and excitement. And income taxes fall about then, too.

All of this seems confusing. What do we make of a season that mixes grief with joy, striving with waiting, renewal with confession, playing games with figuring taxes, frenzied activity with quiet contemplation?

In my senior year of high school, now 41 years ago, our basketball team was defeated by one point in the first game of the 16-team state basketball tournament. It was a defeat that crushed the hopes and expectations of a team that had been planning for a championship for five years. The previous season we had made it all the way to the championship game. There were definite expectations.

The grief over that loss was felt keenly by a bunch of 17-year-olds whose ultimate goals in life were rather short-sighted. In the days that followed the loss a few team mates began to give voice to what was in all of our thinking, but had remained until them unspoken. The deepest pain in the loss of our dreams and goals was not for ourselves. What we all felt most deeply was that we had wanted to give a state championship to our retiring coach, Mr. Fuller. We were his last team and we wanted him to end with the recognition he deserved.

Mr. Fuller was a true Christian gentleman, a person of character and integrity who was able to be a kind of father to each of his players. He was one of a diminishing breed of coaches who taught players how to live and not just how to win.

In the disappointment of our loss, we came to understand and say out loud how much we respected and loved this quiet, white-haired, hard-of-hearing coach. And with that insight now spoken, a bunch of goofball 17-year-olds began to grow up.

It is not so much that losing or failure is good for us, although those can teach us valuable lessons. It is that somewhere along the line we need to understand that we are not immortal or all-powerful. We are not in control, nor can we determine every outcome in life. We have limits and boundaries. We are sinners. We are prone to wander. The way to renewal and life eternal goes through weakness, trial, temptation and grief. To think otherwise is to try to live in the mistaken dreams of adolescence. The road to new life runs through Lent. The path to salvation takes us to the cross.