Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. In the last few days, I have seen a lot of articles on why you need to observe Lent, why you shouldn't observe Lent, why it's okay if you observe Lent but only if you have the right motives, and so on. As an old school Baptist, I'm not going to tell you one way or another whether you should observe Lent, whether you should fast, whether you should take on a spiritual discipline. That is up to you.
But I need Lent. I actually need it pretty desperately because I have sinned in word, deed, and thought. As the old confession states, I have sinned in what I have done and in what I have failed to do. I have not loved God with my entire heart and I have not loved my neighbor as myself. I need to repent. I need to refocus on Jesus who saves me. Lent brings all of these realities to the foreground.
And with the ash of this Wednesday and the fasts of the next few weeks, those realities become very physical. We often let our walk with God float off untethered from the flesh and blood realities of our world. My faith sometimes has more in common with the gnostics than I would like to admit. Lent grounds the spiritual in the here and now, which is where it ought to be for us to follow Jesus.
Why do I need a special season to do this? Shouldn't I be doing these things every day? Yes, but to get back to that first point: I am sinful. There are times that I do relatively well in following God in the ordinary days. But even then, it is relatively well. Beyond that, I screw up and I find myself far from where I ought to be.
If we weren't frozen out of services tonight, I would be reminded that I am a sinful, mortal creature and yet God loves us so much that God sent Jesus. I would be given the charge to repent and believe the gospel. I need to turn from the paths of destruction that I walk and recommit walking the long way of obedience to God. I need to believe the gospel deep in the depths of my being in such a way that it transforms me.
I need those reminders. I need this journey to Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. I need to repent and believe the gospel.
