Lent 2025

A season like Lent has always appealed to me. A limited time to step up my game was an invitation I readily accepted only to find myself giving up or limping my way into church on Easter because I tried to do too much or gave up too much.

This year, I’m focusing all my attention on a simple question: In what direction am I headed? It’s a question that can be applied to all facets of one’s life – professional, relational, physical, and, yes, spiritual. Broad in scope, the question looks at progress over perfection, not where one arrives, but where he or she is headed. 

·      In what direction are my relationships headed? Am I taking them for granted, or am I putting renewed effort into them? Are their some that need special attention?

·      In what direction am I headed professionally (or vocationally)? Am I making a difference? Am I being challenged or am I just going through the motions of doing things I’ve always done?

·      Am I growing healthier or not? Do I push my body at all, or do I prefer to sit on the couch watching Netflix eating Bon Bons?

·      And what about my faith? Am I growing closer or more distant to God? What do I do because of my faith, if anything at all? What don’t I do because of my faith?

Somehow, the question frees me of an overwhelming to-do list. It focuses on my intentions and, from that, things will be done, or not done, depending on the direction in which I am headed. I believe, in the end, this will be an effective new approach to this important season.

Focusing on my direction is simple but profound. Who knows, I might even be in a new place come Easter, which has always been the intention of the season.

Driving in Snow

I live where people are afraid of snow. Having grown up in the north, it’s sometimes difficult to understand closing schools before a flake has fallen and clearing the grocery stores of all bread and milk. I have to remember I grew up with snow, they didn’t; I learned how to drive in snow, they didn’t.

And yet, watching people cloistered in their homes for days because there’s snow on the ground, seeing cars drive off the road because they think snow makes no difference, or getting stuck because they crawl along shows me how fear causes people to respond in different ways. It shows me how dangerous fear can be . . . with or without inclement weather.

Fear can make people hide in their homes (or self-created places of safety) instead of engaging with the world outside. It can make people act brave and hit the gas as if they’re invincible. It can also cause some to slow to a crawl where it’s only a matter of time before they get stuck.

The issue is not the weather, or the way life shows up. It’s the fear and the way it controls us that matters. As people of faith, we accept that fact that life comes on clear and snowy days. How we navigate our way through varies, but the key is getting in the car and learning how to drive in all conditions - that, and knowing we’re not making our way alone.       

Tattooed Longings

The date was etched on his right bicep. It must be an important date, I said to myself as I looked across the room. “That’s his original sobriety date,” someone told me after the meeting. “He made the cardinal sin of tattooing it on his arm. Turns out he went back out a few times since then.” I shook my head thinking about having such a reminder engraved on my arm, a constant reminder of later mistakes.

But I’ve come to see his tattoo in a different light. He was probably overjoyed with his decision to get sober, and the joy of the early days of sobriety led him to crystalize the decision. Unfortunately, that joy didn’t withstand the challenges that were to come, but instead of bemoaning or regretting the date on his arm, I think it speaks to the desire that was deep within him . . . the desire that matters . . the desire that’s worth remembering.

Looking back at my life, I see countless failed attempts at things. The list seems endless and rather than fill the page with longings that were not realized, I take comfort in the fact that I had the longings at all.

“I know the secrets of your heart,” scripture says, and I believe that’s true. We may not live perfect lives, we may promise things we don’t keep, but God sees beyond our many failures to the secret, sincere longings of our hearts, the longings that made us promise in the first place. I think that’s what grace looks like - being able to see beyond our failures to the longing of our hearts.

The man sitting across from me turned his life and will over to the care of God on a specific date. None of that changes because he drank again. The longing that was there on that specific date remains, and because of God’s grace he’s sitting among us again.

If only we allowed such grace with other unkept promises. If only we were able to focus on the longing that lies deep within our hearts.