Well here we are – about half way through Lent. I’ve learned something again for the umpteenth time – some thing I have always known – I am a sinner. On Ash Wednesday, I wrote about how Lent can be like a mirror in an unavoidable place that shows us an image of who we really are. As of today, Lent 2011 has succeeded.
As I set out on my Lenten journey, I promised to write a reflection for this blog each day. In that, I have failed. I promised myself that I would exercise each day to improve my health. In that, I have failed. I promised not to take sweets. In that, I have failed. Without going into much more detail, I can safely say that in every discipline that I undertook for this Lent, I have failed.
That might be cause for great discouragement.
However, the opposite is true. My failures at these undertakings is only the mirror showing me that on my own, with my own strength, I cannot attain the life that God calls me to live. My failures starkly remind me that without grace, I can do nothing well.
It took three weeks to get here. Now I can get to the business of letting God be God in my life. I can finally put away the fantasy that I can do all these things on my own. Am I throwing in the towel on my Lenten disciplines? No way. Only now, I have learned again that I can only succeed by the grace of God.
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