I like the quote I read somewhere that Lent observance is like Spring housecleaning for the soul.  I’ve been motivated to do a little deeper than usual cleaning because the sun came out and I could clearly see the dust and spiderwebs lurking in my house!  And the sunshine gave me a lift so I’m more ambitious to tackle jobs I’ve been putting off. It made me think of the many things I need to clean out of my soul. Or rather, the things I need to confess and turn from, let Jesus take them away and help me replace them with happier things.  

“So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.  Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”  James 4:7-10

One of the first things I identified that needed to be swept out of my soul was patterns of negative thinking.  It has been easy to slip into fearful thinking since a serious illness has invaded our family.  I have now become alert to those fearful thoughts and turn away from them.  I intentionally and persistently refuse those thoughts entrance and turn instead to Jesus who is with us in our trouble.  I’m telling him my worries and thanking him for lovingly controlling the outcomes.  I am being realistic and not not denying our serious circumstances.  I know the path and the outcome might not be what I would choose.  But I’m resting in the fact that God is in control and he is loving and powerful.  He cares and he works in our lives.  

“I will not fail you or abandom you. . . This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:5,9.  In this context, God also instructed Joshua to obey and meditate on God’s Book.

One of the old traditions of Lent includes penitence. According to the dictionary, this word means feeling sorry for the wrongs we have done.  Feeling regret is far different than trying to punish ourselves.  We don’t punish ourselves in order to pay for our sins.  That would be shunning Jesus’ payment for our sins.  He already paid because we can never pay enough. It is also not lingering guilt that beats us down and discourages us.  Penitence means being sorry and pushes us to ask for forgiveness.  Once confessed, we know our wrongs are forgiven and we are freed to move forward.  But if we don’t regret our wrongs, we won’t feel the need to ask forgiveness and change. For instance, we regret being so self-absorbed that we missed an opportunity to help a friend.  So we ask for forgiveness and determine to be more loving in the future.  Feeling sorry is the first step to change.

This silly incident happened to me today but it serves to illustrate the point.  I was attending a business lucheon with over a hundred people.  The person responsible for the meeting asked all those present to silence their cell phones.  My phone has a broken silencer button; it’s unreliable.  Even when I push it to silent mode, it turns itself back on.  Yet I still pushed the button instead of taking the time to turn my volume off manually one bar at a time. Instead, I just kept talking to a new friend.  I never get calls anyway, I rationalized. Later, I got in the buffet line on the far side of the room.  But when I got to the buffet table, the main course was gone.  Several of us decided to wait for the food to be replenished and we all just sat down at the nearest table to wait.  Conversation followed and finally the food arrived.  The program had already begun and rather than walk all the way across the large room to my original table, I just ate where I was.  Keep in mind that I had left my purse/phone at the first table.  Our guest speaker was the commissioner of the labor board of our state.  Are you getting a hint of the brewing storm?  Right in the middle of her presentation, a phone started ringing.  It’s coming from the direction of the table where I left my purse, but the ring tone doesn’t sound familiar.  A dark cloud passed over my thoughts.  Could it be my phone?  Dear Husband had briefly traded phones- long story – and in the back and forth, the ring tone had been changed.  That annoying phone just kept ringing.  Finally, the speaker stopped her speech.  “Could someone take care of that phone?” she asked.  The poor lady sitting next to my purse adamantly declared it wasn’t her purse.  So the director of the Chamber of Commerce hustled over to the table where I had been sitting and held up my purse with the ringing phone.  “Whose purse it this?” he asked in a loud voice.  I shrank in my chair across the room.  I covered my face.  The lady behind me whispered, “Is that your phone?!”  It finally stopped ringing.  Not only had I been negligent with the silencer, now I had been a coward.  Needless to say, I felt terrible that I had caused such a disruption.  My feelings of regret prompted me to apologize to several people.  And my feelings prompted me to vow never to neglect to manually silence my phone in a meeting.

The Bible commands us to self-examine, identify our wrongs, feel sorry for our disobedience, and repent.  This means we have to take a long look inward, honesty identify things that violate God’s good way, and lay those ugly things before God agreeing with him that they are wrong.  He will forgive us for Jesus’ sake, help us turn away from wrong behavior, and follow him more closely.  This is necessary 365 days a year.  Lent just reminds us to be acutely aware of getting rid of soul stains.   

“… if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God.”  I Corinthians11:31

What things have crept into your soul that need to be cleared out?