Another Lenten journey is under way. The journey began with the ashes of Ash Wednesday. It will end on Holy Saturday, outside a tomb, waiting for the celebration of resurrection on Easter Sunday. In between is a six weeks journey which – for most of us – will include commitment, spiritual disciplines, struggle, failure followed by renewed commitment and trying again. In a way, the Lenten journey is a lot like the rest of life – aspiring, trying, failing, aspiring again, trying again, failing again. If nothing else, the Lenten journey teaches us about grace – our need for it, the abundance of it from the heart of God.
Many of us participated in an Ash Wednesday service to begin our journey. The ashes of Ash Wednesday are a reminder of our humanness. We received the ashes in the form of a cross, reminding us of the grace we need in our humanness.
Truth be told, most of us are uncomfortable with our humanness. Being human means we are not yet full grown. We are still in process, learning and growing. Being human means we live with limitations. We do not have an endless supply of anything – energy, strength, endurance, patience, love. You name it, at some point, we run out of it. When we run short, we need to rest, recharge, refill, renew. In other words, being human means living with recurring needs. Again, truth be told, most of us don’t like to feel like we are needy much less in any way dependent. Being human also means we make mistakes. We stumble and fall. We don’t always get it right the first time. We don’t always make straight A’s. Whatever way you say it, being human means we are not perfect. We aspire to do more than we can live up to. There is always a gap between what we know to do and what we can do. The biblical term that means “falling short” is sin. Being human means we live with the reality of dealing with falling short, i.e., sin.
And that’s where the Lenten journey comes in.
Historically, Lent is a season of repentance. It is focused on how we fall short. It is a season of resolve, expressing our desire to do/be better. It is a time when we choose to give up something as an expression of this desire. (The practice of giving up something for Lent is tied to Jesus’s statement, “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me,” Mark 8:34. More about that in my next blog.) The Lenten season is a time of renewed focus on spiritual practices – what is commonly called spiritual disciplines because they require self-discipline to practice them.
Ironically, the Lenten journey as we traditionally practice it sets up the resolving-trying-failing-resolving again-trying again-failing again-repeat-it-until-you’re-blue-in-the-face cycle that is a normal part of our human condition. Therein is the downside of Lent. Therein is also the potential gift of Lent.
The downside of Lent is its focus on our humanness with its falling short. It’s the wrong focus (in my opinion). It keeps us focused on ourselves, on our failure (sin), on our behavior – what we do or fail to do. It makes the journey about me. (Shaming ourselves for our sinfulness is one of the ingenious ways the ego-centric self keeps the focus on “me.”)
The upside of Lent is our struggle with our resolving-trying-failing-resolving again cycle can lead us to a better focus – or should I say, better foci (as in two).
Hopefully, this behavior-focused cycle will eventually lead us beyond our obsession with our behavior and with how we fail to measure up, i.e., sin. Hopefully, repeated failure will eventually lead us to ask “Why?” Why do I do what I do not want to do? Why can’t I do what I aspire to do? (Check out Paul’s lament about this struggle in Romans 7:15-24.) When we stop fighting our struggle and seek to understand our struggle, we are in a position to move beyond the struggle. We are in a position to make actual progress.
We move beyond our struggle when our focus shifts from our behavior to our heart, from the external to the internal, from the symptom to the source. Jesus, following Jeremiah, identified the heart rather than our behavior as the problem. “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within,” (Mark 7:21-22a).
We like to focus on our behavior because we have some degree of control over it. We, on the other hand, have no control over what lies in our hearts. We are powerless to control it. Paul spoke of this powerlessness as being a slave or captive to sin, Romans 7:6, 17, 20, 23. The good news is that God can change what is in the heart!
The heart is the first proper focus of the Lenten journey. The heart is where the battle is won. The second proper focus of the Lenten journey is God, specifically, the grace of God.
Our struggle with our humanness points us to God. It calls us to open our hearts anew to God and to the Spirit’s work of transforming them. It calls us to reclaim the grace and forgiveness which God freely lavishly on us. It calls us beyond guilt and shame, self-condemnation and self-hate. It invites us to join Paul in his conclusion: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through our Jesus Christ our Lord! … There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” Romans 7:24-24a; 8:1. It calls us to live in the power of the Spirit rather than out of self-effort and self-reliance, Romans 8:3-4, 12-17.
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