So, how is your Lent going? Now that we are almost at the half-way point, it seems like an appropriate time to check in regarding our collective progress (or lack thereof!) The question that keeps ringing in my ears this season is a big and challenging one: Am I living the life God desires for me?
Anyone who has listened to me preach more than a few times knows that one of my favorite Christian writers is Frederick Buechner, who just passed away last year. One of his books that I always keep by my side is a collection of daily meditations for the year entitled, Listening to Your Life. In writing about Lent, Buechner re-frames the Lenten task of self-examination in some provocative ways. Consider these questions during Lent, he suggests:
“If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?
Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?
Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?
If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?”
These are daunting questions to ask indeed. As I think about them, I’m not entirely sure I like all my answers. The good news of our faith, however, is that we’re not alone in answering these questions. God in Christ takes all of our meager and misshapen efforts at “self-improvement” and, through the mystery and gift of grace, makes something new, wonderful, and unexpected of us. This is what we call resurrection. It is the joy of Easter that awaits us on the other side of Lent.
So, for now, think deeply about who, and whose, you are. And then, as we look ahead toward Easter, let us rejoice that Christ’s love for us is so profound that He already has plans to make something marvelous of whatever life we have to offer.