A Long Look Within

   The Lenten season is already upon us. Can you believe it? Do you realize that just two months ago, we were celebrating Christmas? Something really strange has happened this year, with the way all those solstices and equinoxes fall, and Easter will be exceptionally early this year. April 5! I'm having a really tough time making the mental gears switch over--and all this crazy snow everywhere doesn't do much to help me come to terms with the fact that Lent is already here, and Easter is coming fast.

   But we should do everything we can in order to enter into the journey of Lent. The alternative is missing out on a truly precious opportunity: the opportunity to enter into the story of Christ's ministry, His passion, and His resurrection. It's your opportunity to enter into the drama--to make the Gospel story, your story. The result of doing this is wonderful and transformative.

   But before we jump in, headlong, we really ought to make sure that we are clear about what we are doing, and why. A good, first question would be: what is Lent? What does the word mean?

   The word, "Lent," is an Old English word that means "long," in observance of the fact that the days visibly lengthen in the spring. It and "spring" were used somewhat interchangeably. So the Old English term for spring would have been something like, "the lengthening." So originally, the term, "Lent," wasn't even a particularly religious word. However, given that it was in these days of "lengthening" that people also prepared themselves spiritually for entering into the story of Christ's Passion and Resurrection, the word Lent has morphed over the centuries to take on a spiritual connotation.

   A much older term for what we call "Lent" is how they referred to it in Latin: Quadragesima, meaning "fortieth." This is in reference to the fact that the Lenten observance is forty days in length. The forty days of Lent are meant to commemorate the 40 days that Christ spend fasting in the desert, after His baptism, and prior to the beginning of His public ministry. In preparation for celebrating the Passion week, believers have also entered a forty day period of fasting, symbolically participating with Jesus in His wilderness fast. Other foreign words for "Lent" recognize that it is all about entering into the story of Christ's preparatory fast. The German word for Lent is fastenzeit, simply meaning "fasting time." Other European languages, like Russian or Czech, use an expression which translates into "the great fast" (Czech is postni doba; Russian is vyeliki post.)

   So, there we have the meaning and origin of the term, "Lent." Having covered the what, however, we should talk about the why. For many Christians in this country, there is a serious question about whether Lent should be observed at all. Believe me, I understand. My first church memories were in a small, Independent Fundamental Baptist church, and the term Lent only conjured up people eating fish and carrying out mystical, Catholic rituals. I'm ashamed to tell you that anything liturgical like this stirred up suspicion in me and other members of my little group of "Fundies". I have grown a tremendous amount since those days. The denomination I now call home is far more hospitable and ecumenical, praise the Lord, and we understand that liturgy is not a sinister or wrong thing.

   Many strongly object to observing Lent because, they say, it's nowhere in the Bible. To that objection I would be quick to point out that an annual celebration of Christmas is also mentioned nowhere in the Bible, but that holiday is celebrated without anyone raising an eyebrow. To be clear, I'm glad about that. As far as I can tell, there is no biblical prescription for an annual celebration of Easter. Rather, each Sunday is supposed to be a celebration of Christ's resurrection. That's why Christian worship was moved from the true Sabbath, Saturday, to the first day of the week. The first day of the week is when Jesus arose from the tomb. Nevertheless, I hardly have a problem with a special, annual celebration of Easter--I rejoice in it, and so should you. Returning to the subject of Lent, granted, there is no commandment in the New Testament to celebrate it each year. But, are there good reasons to do so nonetheless?

   I submit that the answer is yes. I feel it important to note that motivation is everything. Why do we observe Lent? Is it with the hopes that, from performing "extra credit" religious rituals, we might gain extra favor from God? I fear that far too many people think this way. They treat God as a gum ball machine, and ritual as the coin. Insert religious ritual, turn crank, and out pops good fortune in life. My friend, God is not a divine dispenser of handouts, whom you may manipulate. He is a loving Heavenly Father, who wants to be present in, and to transform, every single area of your life. He wants you to share everything with Him, and He wants to share everything with you.

   The only detail is that you must let Him in. That takes time. And tragically, time is a commodity so precious to us that we begrudge sharing it with Him. Why are we so miserly of the time we are willing to share with God? We're just so BUSY all the time. The alarming thing is that we never stop to consider that all this busy-ness may be a tactic of Satan himself.

   In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster says the following:

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in 'muchness' and 'manyness,' he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, 'Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.' (p. 15)

   If you are too hurried, too busy, to invite God into all the moments and places of your daily living, then you are too busy, by far. But why does busy-ness have such a hold on us--why do we all feel bound by it? Perhaps part of the answer is something we dare not admit to ourselves. Perhaps it's because we are all too aware of what may happen if we take the time to walk with Jesus, and to share with Him all our goings and comings and doings and thoughts. Perhaps we KNOW what He will do if we open these things to Him--He might start changing things! And just perhaps, we're not sure we want Him to!

   Later in the book I just mentioned, Foster says this:

Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them. We are content to have the message second-hand...In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change. (p. 24)

Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. We keep up a constant stream of words even if they are inane. We buy radios that strap to our wrists or fit over our ears so that if no once else is around, at least we are not condemned to silence. (p. 98)

   Why are we so scared of being alone...being quiet...taking time to think? Perhaps (though we'd never admit it to ourselves), we fear what God may say to us, and do within us. If we hold Him at arm's length, we can keep the relationship nice and cordial. God may be less likely, that way, to ask anything of us that we would be uncomfortable doing. When we insist on keeping God at arm's length, relating to Him only through what we hear a preacher say on Sunday, however, that's not enough. We still aren't allowing God to share our lives and innermost thoughts. And that leads to temptation and sin.

   That leads me to another reason we are afraid to take time, alone, with the Lord. I hate vehicle inspection time, don't you? I watch the date on that sticker, and as it gets nearer, my dread grows. I just know that when the mechanic takes a look at my car, he will find something wrong. It's not that seeing the mechanic makes the car develop a problem--the problem is already there. But when the mechanic looks, he will see the problem. I hate that. That means money from my pocket, which I can't easily spare.

   I feel that is another part of the answer as to why we allow our busy-ness to have such a hold on our lives. Being obsessively busy keeps us from time alone, with God, in silence. And, if we don't allow God enough time to see into our hearts and lives, the very real problems we have will remain undiscovered, right? God won't see them? Well, that's foolish thinking, and that's where the whole analogy falls apart. God is not like a mechanic, who won't discover the problem if we don't let Him take a peek under the hood. Psalm 139 breaks the news to us in powerful and beautiful language. Consider the first six verses:

"You have searched me, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." (NIV)

   Christians have always held that God sees and knows absolutely everything. We learned this in Sunday School when we were very young. Still, we mortal humans have a difficult time processing that truth in real life. The reality we experience is that our private thoughts and deeds will remain that way unless we choose to reveal them. Despite the fact that we say we believe in the infinite and extensive knowledge of God, we instinctively fall back on the assumption that if we keep certain doors closed to God, He will never find out about the extent of our sinful tendencies.

   We really do need to get the truth to sink into our mortal skulls: there is no use trying to hide anything about ourselves from God. He already knows it—all of it--even better than we know it ourselves. To really blow our minds, He knew all of it before we were even born! Since He already knows it, we may as well be honest with Him, and ourselves, about it. That is because, once we open up to God about our profound brokenness, the way is opened for God to begin cleansing and purifying us. In the Bible, God makes clear His earnest desire to work with us so that we can be conformed to the character of Jesus and bring Him glory.

“'Come now, let us settle the matter,' says the Lord. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'" -- Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." -- 1 John 1:8-9 (NIV)

   The type of transformation that can set us free and bring us to a life of true purpose awaits only our being totally open with God, and trusting His loving hand to purge all that stands in the way. King David was eager that the Heavenly Father would undertake this complete renovation of his life. This is why he made the following invitation in Psalm 139:23-24...

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (NIV)

   Just as the forty days of Christ's fasting in the desert marked His complete dedication to the Father's will in His life, the forty days of Lent give us the opportunity to symbolically join Him in a journey that strips away the false directions and securities that keep us from knowing the good He has in store for us. Lent is a long look within--one which helps us to consecrate ourselves to the higher and better purposes for which the Father has destined us.