Lent

While some of you may be celebrating this evening with dinner and flowers, I plan to have ashes smeared on my forehead. As a widow, Valentines Day has lost its appeal, but Lent still calls out to me.

My parents observed Lent, so I grew up observing it. We weren’t Catholic, but I sense they recognized their and my need for self-discipline. What were we leaning on, what had we become dependent on, what were we using to fill the holes only God could fill? What had become a habit? If I could loosen its control on me for 40 days, 47 if you count Sundays, then wouldn’t that be a good thing?

I would give up chocolate, or alcohol, or red meat. Sometimes I’d give up computer games. When the urge came upon me to succumb to temptation, I would pray and distract myself with reading the Bible or devotional books. Instead of making me feel holier, it made me twitchy and restless. How dependent I was, and often still are, on these earthly pleasures!

Lent commemorates the period after Jesus’ baptism when the Spirit led him into the wilderness to fast for 40 days. If that were not enough, satan came to tempt Him at the end. All that fasting was training Jesus, strengthening Him to be able to resist satan’s temptations. If Jesus needed to be trained to resist temptation by fasting, don’t I?

I need training to resist temptation. I need practice. I need to put those muscles to work.

Now, disciple always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11

Last year I observed the Jewish Sabbath for Lent, and I am going to do that again. I’m not going to follow all the Hasidic regulations, but I am going to “do no work” and “keep it holy.” (Exodus 31:12-17)

I have found that training my brain to think only thoughts about God and His glory is even more challenging than not eating chocolate. When I clear my mind of thoughts not related to God, sometimes it looks like a barren field, like my garden this time of year. There’s not much left growing there. What a sad and sobering revelation. Am I prepared to spend eternity in the presence of God if I can’t spend an entire day there?

Twitchy and restless.

God is showing me the gaps in my training, my need for discipline, the distance I need to travel to truly be His disciple.

Then he said to them all, “If any of you want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23.

I think I want to be a disciple of Jesus. I think I follow Him. I know I believe, but even the demons believe (James 2:19). Could I really take up a cross if even a day of rest seems a burden? I need to practice this art of resisting temptation. I need to practice giving up chocolate and alcohol and red meat so perhaps I will be strong enough to give up divisiveness and quarrelling and self-righteousness.

I cannot resist these temptations on my own. I get all twitchy and restless. Only God and His Spirit can give me the strength to abstain from worldly distractions and unholy thoughts.

Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. James 4:7-8.

I don’t want to be double minded. I want to have the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2:16). I want to submit my self to God, cleanse my hands, purify my heart, and draw near to God.

I may be losing chocolate, computer games, and Saturday TV, but look what I am gaining!

Happy Lent!

Betsy