Lent

When we first moved into our house in Castlewood the bathroom needed some work. Instead of a nice wall of tile around the bathtub, we had massive mirrors that revealed more about me than I cared to see 😳.

For me, Jesus serves as a spiritual mirror that reveals more about my soul than I sometimes care to see. In the last 24 hours of his life we see humanity at its ideal in Jesus: humble, self-sacrificing love for others. We also see humanity at its worse: betrayal, self-centeredness, violence, deceit, and pride. The contrast between Jesus's self-sacrificing love and his followers' self-centeredness cannot be overstated. His refusal to conform to the way of violence, greed, and fear clearly revealed the hard hearts of everyone else.

It's much easier to see the faults of others than to see the faults within in our own hearts.

"This X-RAY at others is called 'naked truth,' 'unvarnished truth.'  In literature and art it is called realism.  But to spot it in one's self is not only difficult but painful, and no one wants to take the descending path to that naked, unvarnished truth, with all its unacceptable humiliations.  It is much more comfortable to stay on the level of the plain and ordinary, to go on being just plain and ordinary.  Yet it is to this path that Lent invites us."

-Edna Hong

Jesus's friends were on that difficult, descending path of seeing themselves as they truly were. It's hard for me to see the 'naked truth' about me, but it only serves to remind me how much I need God's grace. Lent shouldn't be easy, but the good news is that it ends in grace.