Like most larval dads, I have more than a passing familiarity with Warhammer 40K, the satirical science-fiction board-game-turned-media-empire that now prints money off the backs of little plastic figurines and an ancient library’s worth of book series. I’m by no means an expert on 40K, but I know just enough to either scare everyone away at a party or make a ton of friends at said party— you know, depending on what kind of party it is.
One of the many fascinating nuggets of lore surrounding 40K is its approach to cosmic space travel, which, instead of relying on fancy engines or clever sci-fi doublespeak to explain itself, involves a terrible ritual whereby the Emperor of Man psychically rips a hole in spacetime, exposing our reality to a dimension called the “Warp.” The Warp is, functionally, space hell, in which the four gods of chaos and their minions make their domain, and in order for a ship to travel from one end of the galaxy to another, they must enter the Warp and then emerge on the other side, hopefully unscathed and at their intended destination. Hilarity and misadventure ensue in the meantime.
I am not infrequently a little too cute for my own good, and so I think of Lent as the Warp for Christians. Lent is a period of time rather than distance, but nevertheless, we know it by its trials and temptations. This is the time of the year for struggle. We fear it and respect it, and engage it only as often as we must, because even though it is the path to the ultimate assurance of peace and safety, we still have to walk it, and it’s Christ who is there, giving us both the strength and the mandate to see it through.
These last two Lents have been very difficult. Not for me, they’ve been pretty comfortable for me, all things considered. But I saw good friends go through terrible ordeals, things I couldn’t help them with or intercept, and I watched people I care about fall out with each other. Some of these things only persisted for as long as the season. Others sorted themselves out in due time. And others still will take years yet to heal.
Now, we are here for the first week in the Warp 2025, and God has decided that it’s my turn in the dock. I won’t go into detail so as not to worry or scandalize anyone, but there’s a particular passion that I have been kicking down the road for a long time, and God has chosen this week to place a fulcrum in my life, a metanoia, if you will, so that I can start to turn away from it. It won’t be easy, but it is an answered prayer, and I’m thankful to have my work cut out for me so early. St. John Chrysostom encourages us to pick one thing to focus on during Lent- either mastering a vice or working on a virtue -and there is something strangely but especially comforting about having that choice taken out of your hands and made clear to you. God is rarely so explicit, or so we think, anyway.
However, lest I think of myself too much in these days, my loved ones are also already dealing with their own challenges and dangerous uncertainties. Health issues have reared their heads on both sides of the family, highlighting the need for prayer and submission. Lent makes everything so clear, and for as often as its duties make it feel like a hassle or, Heaven forfend, a kind of unnecessary religious affect, it has a way of quietly and unmistakably impressing the truth of God’s sovereignty upon us through our suffering.
Part of this cycle is also the eventual emergence into the light of the Paschal season. All of us die and will die, of course, and I have lost friends in the time of Lent before, but more often than not, those of us who start will finish, because we are being taught in this time. We are learning just how weak and benighted our earthly powers are, and in the lesson, we also receive a story to share about God’s provision; a story about His mercy, His goodness, and His actions that carried us through the Lenten season.
My son’s godmother sent me a psalm this morning that feels particularly applicable to this. She sent it because she recognized parallels between the structure of the psalm and Tolkien’s writing style, but I think it also serves as a good word for those of us standing at the edge of the Warp this week.
From the Septuagint, Psalm 47:
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain, in the well-rooted joy of all the earth,
The mountains of Sion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
God is known in her towers, when He cometh to help her.
For lo, when the kings of the earth were assembled; they came together.
When they saw her thus they marvelled, they were troubled, they were shaken, trembling took hold of them; there were pangs as of a woman in travail.
With a vehement wind shalt Thou shatter the ships of Tharsis.
Even as we have heard, so too we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. God hath laid her foundations unto eternity.
We have thought, O God, of thy mercy in the midst of Thy people.
According to Thy name, O God, so is Thy praise also unto the ends of the earth; Thy right hand is full of righteousness.
Let Mount Sion be glad, and let the daughters of Judea rejoice, because of Thy judgments, O Lord.
Encircle Sion and encompass her; tell her story in her towers.
Whatever wisdom we have to share with anyone, no matter the circumstances, comes from the judgments of God. Those judgments give us the stories we “tell in her towers,” as the psalm says, and now is the time for attending to those judgments and abiding by them.
Let this be encouragement for the Great Fast and the path through it. If you’ve read this far, I offer my prayers for you, for good strength in the Lenten season, and humbly ask the same for myself. Likewise, if I have offended any of you in the last year in knowledge or in ignorance, please forgive me. God forgives.
Programming note: I still plan to post during Lent, but my goal is only to share things that will be spiritually nutritive. As such, I may miss a week here or there if I don’t have anything worthwhile to share. On those weeks, I will offer my prayers again for this community. Many thanks. See you on the other side of the Warp.
May our Lord illuminate the righteous path He has laid before each of us and compel us to walk it dutifully and with joy.