I know that posting this might unsettle a few of my Truly Reformed friends. By those I mean the people who memorize and quote the catechisms to answer every question. You are committed to truth and consistency. It may also unsettle some of my more committed evangelical friends. The people I love who are committed to abandoning anything that smacks of “dead ritualism,” because you grew up in a tradition that repeated meaningless acts regularly and it never changed you.
I get it, I have been both of you! But our church is practicing Lent this year (as we have for a few now). Last night as a friend and elder in my church rubbed ashes against my forehead I felt the ash mix with the dust of my flesh and remembered that my time is short.
Today as I shoveled my driveway for the second time this week, I prayed for Jesus to come quickly or for that heart attack they say you can have shoveling. And I’m only about half kidding. I will let you figure out which half.
Because reality hits you hard, bro!
I always think of that guy in that video when I think about reality. It does hit hard. We used to laugh that he reminded me of my oldest son. The one who is struggling with addiction and mental health. The one who has inadvertently of course caused a lot of my pain, uncertainty and yes hope.
When I consider Lent, I consider him. I consider my own failures. I consider how life doesn’t always go the way you wish. And I consider that eventually, some day, this too shall pass. Just as I will. Just as each of us must.
A dear friend texted me today that our service last night helped her to reorient herself to the ultimate truth that Jesus is the only answer we have. It can be so easy as we live in the wilderness east of Eden to forget that there is hope. We can get distracted from the truth that the new creation is coming. We think we can find ultimate answers in a world that is passing.
What I mean is that we actually begin to believe that we can find comfort that lasts in things that are passing away. Whether that is status, or stuff, or the health and wellbeing of people we love. We want to find comfort in these things.
But we can’t, and we never will.
So many of us live terribly unhappy lives because we are searching for happiness in places it will never come.
The practice of Lent can help us to remember and live out the truth that we are passing away. Even now, the grave is getting closer to each and every one of us.
But Jesus is getting closer. I believe there is life after. I believe that the empty grave is real. I believe that that because the grave is empty there is hope.
And when I struggle to believe that, and I really do, I pray “Lord I believe, Help my Unbelief!”
And when the ashes cut into my skin I am reminded that ultimately the only real hope I have is that the grave really is empty.
And if you think thats not true, or if you think thats dead ritualism, then tell my heart that so desperately needs to be reminded that there is no hope in anything other than Jesus. My weak and faltering heart finds no comfort in dead ritualism or easy memorized answers to difficult questions.
But I find great hope and meaning in the possibility that Jesus really died, really rose again, and really is making all things new.
I see evidence of it in history, in the lives of others, and in my own soul. And I need to be reminded every way I can that this stuff is real and it means something.
If you would like to explore Lent more fully, I will offer you a few resources. You can visit the Lent page at Bismarck Community Church’s website to download a free devotional and poetry that goes along with it.
Also, I am currently re-listening to a playlist I made several years ago to go along with a study of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the Bible, It is often called “Wisdom Literature,” and it is all about reminding us of the lessons Lent is trying to bore into our souls. Life is short everything around us is passing, but there is still a hope for us. The songs are songs you know, Lithium, Dust in the Wind, What a Wonderful World, and many more. But when you listen to them together you are reminded of the beauty, the wonder, and the hope we have even in the midst of walking through a wilderness.