It hardly seems possible that it’s been almost a year since the last lent, since I chose to focus on God daily by writing a blog post. And yet, so much has happened that it also feels like a lifetime ago. So many distractions, so much unnecessary noise. So here we are again. 40 days (plus Sundays – I do learn from my mistakes!) 40 blogs posts to mark lent, to mark turning back to God. Will you join me?
I’ve been doing some background reading. I read that lent is a time of introspection. Uh-oh! It is easy to get looking inward wrong. You can get bogged down and stuck, you can forget to look at the people around you, you can end up hating yourself, you can end up diagnosing yourself with serious mental or emotional conditions, you can wallow in self-pity and convince yourself you are a victim… the list goes on. Introspection done wrong is dangerous.
Lent is not about that. But it is about introspection. Lent is 40 days because Jesus was driven into the wilderness for 40 days by the Spirit just after he had been publicly claimed by God as His son. Jesus spends 40 days with nothing else to do but think. No food, no water, no books. Just him and his Father.
At the end of those 40 days, Jesus is tempted. He is hungry, so he is challenged to turn stones into bread. His identity has just been revealed so he is challenged to prove it. And he is human, so he is tempted with power. But from this place of having nothing, a place some would see as desperate, Jesus finds it in himself to answer with quotes from God. After 40 days, he knows who he is and, perhaps more importantly, knows who he is with God.
Introspection is not a tool to beat ourselves up with and an obstacle to hold us in place. It is an opportunity to search within, honestly and without judgement. It is an opportunity to see those areas we have fallen, the failures, the disappointments, the shame and any other part we choose to ignore or hide away and let it go. Not let it sink back beneath the surface, but to surrender it to the grace of God.
When Jesus was tempted and stood firm, he knew he was prepared to face the next few years of his ministry even to the cross. And he didn’t do that so we could hide behind fig leaves like Adam and Eve did. He didn’t die for the perfect – they didn’t need him. He died for the messy, for the sinner, for the disappointed… basically, he died for you.
So take a look in the mirror. Take a good look. See the beautiful bits, the triumphs and celebrate them. And see the rubbish bits, the bits you want to hide. And relinquish them. They have no hold over you unless you let them. Give them to God and receive his grace in return. Remember who you are, Child of God.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 