Read: Joel 2:1-2, 1217; Matthew 6:1-6; 16-21
Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent – six weeks set apart for the purpose of drawing closer to God. It is a time in the church calendar people are encouraged to pursue Him with greater intensity and focus. The questions I ask myself each Lent is: “Where in my life have I gotten away from God? What are the practices that will help me find my way back?”
Ash Wednesday begins this season in which we are invited to be honest with God and ourselves about the ways we have drifted from God into lethargy or mediocrity or inaction in our relationship with God. Joel, speaking God’s Word to his people declared, “Yet even now…return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
It is an invitation to repentance, to returning to the Lord, to finding his mercy and his grace are sufficient for us in our time of need. Our God is gracious. He is slow to anger. He abounds in steadfast love. He longs to bless us with his loving presence. When we draw near to him, he promises to draw near to us.
When Joel spoke God’s Word, there was reason to wonder if God would relent, if he would forgive the people for their sin. During Lent, we don’t have that fear. We know the answer. We’re moving toward it! Jesus has died and been raised from the dead! Through faith in his finished work, we are forgiven and set free.
Nevertheless, our hearts wander. Our focus falters. Our passion wanes. Like a bonfire only stays hot if we tend to it diligently, over time the busyness and the worries and concerns and pleasures of life often distract us. Lent reminds us to recalibrate. It reminds us to realign our hearts to the heart of God.
Each February, major league baseball players head to Florida or Arizona to begin training for the coming season. They’ve played baseball for years and years, surely they know how to hit and field and throw! And yet, they practice the fundamentals. They correct bad habits. They seek to get better; more efficient. They want to get their muscle memory so in tune with their brains, they don’t have to think when the ball is coming, they simply react. Their bodies know what to do.
Lent is sort of like spiritual spring training. We intentionally seek God through times of personal examination, fasting, prayer, Bible reading, silence and solitude – perhaps things we haven’t been very consistent in practicing – that God might search us and know us and lead us into deeper intimacy, love, and dependence on him.
We often choose to “give up” something during Lent because the practices of fasting and other forms of abstinence help us reconnect and recalibrate with God. Our longing for God is stirred and fanned into flame. The hold sinful patterns may have taken over us can be broken. Things of the world that we have attached our hearts or hope to can be repented from and through our godly grief, we can experience the forgiveness and freedom that comes through faith and repentance.
Lent can be a somber and serious season, but it should be a joyful and hope-filled season as well. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:23). Jesus has come. All who believe in him will never perish but have eternal life. The good work Jesus has begun in us will be carried to completion. As we trust and follow Jesus, our mourning turns into dancing!
For Reflection:
• Where are the places in your own life where you feel distant from God?
• What distracts you from cultivating your relationship with God more intentionally?
• As you begin your Lenten journey, reflect on what you might “give up” or rearrange in order to create more space and more passion for God.
Readings this week:
February 23: Jonah 3:1-10; Romans 1:1-7
February 24: Jonah 4:1-11; Romans 1:8-17
February 25: Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 18:1-7
February 26: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11