Happy October! Yellow leaves decorate the sidewalks, the air has a bite, and PSLs are a bit more acceptable. It’s the best month of the best season. Now that it’s officially fall, I’m starting to see people decorate for Halloween. Chicagoans do not back down. The Halloween decorations remind me why I love living so close to my neighbors—lawn after lawn after lawn has skeletons, spiderwebs, and …
The Somber Season of Lent
This week marks the beginning of Lent.¹ I appreciate how the church calendar embraces all the somber elements of Jesus's life and ours. It doesn't try to deny the realities of sadness, grief, or death, but it places them in a story that acknowledges them even as it provides hope. Hope arises from the places of darkness, because that's when we need it. That's the tension we hold. The somber …