The Value of Lent: Saying "Sin" Aloud

Acknowledging Our Sinfulness

I think it was about a year ago when I was talking with a close friend from seminary and he said something that has stuck with me: "I really look forward to Lent these days because it's a chance to acknowledge my own sinfulness." Perhaps it stuck with me so well because it echoed something brewing in my own sentiments.

Not that either of us wants to wallow in our total depravity (we both happen to be Presbyterians, after all), but rather, in a culture that avoids the "s" word at all costs (not the four-letter one, which remains popular) having a season in which we openly recognize the destructive impact of sin on our lives and the need for God's rescuing hand is actually a relief.

When "sin" is not allowed to be spoken, it is the proverbial elephant in the room—maybe a skeleton at the feast. People today treat it as an archaic word, a relic of the past. But without it, how are we to understand our own experiences—both our suffering at the hands of others and our own knowledge that we do the same?

I suggest we approach Lent as a season to acknowledge our sin and to turn to Christ as broken people—asking Jesus to break the tendrils of sin that keep pulling us back into the swamp. We won't live forever (Lent reminds us that "we are dust and to dust we will return), and we want to be ever more like Christ, rather than held back by the sins that we are still so maddeningly prone to do.

Recognizing those sins rather than making them unmentionable lets us look in the mirror: seeing both the person who is redeemed, but also the person who is still being rescued and renewed.

Updated 12/22/2025

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