Lenten Choices: Law and Grace

One of the themes behind our modern practice of Lent is "being tested."  Loosely imitating the story of Jesus being driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit we use the 40 days to fast from excess and pray more steadily, more deeply.

In effect we test ourselves, our resolve, our appetites, our capacities and more.  We begin with great and in most cases reasonable hope that on the other end something will be proven more trustworthy more reliable, more fit for demands of our lives during and after Easter.

Though it is God who saves us and we are totally dependent on God's mercy to do that still we strive to get better as creatures, as incarnations of love and faithfulness.  I like to use the phrase "to make God's job a little easier."

Most of our Lenten disciplines are heavy on the law side of the religious equation.  Measuring pounds lost is "of the law."  Keeping track of calendar moments like my daily environmental reminders or extra classes like Mudhouse Sabbath, or devotional/worship sessions like Stations of the Cross require a law-like measurement and attendance.

Fear not.  This version of the "law" has little punitive authority or power, mostly because it is of each individual's designing.  But the principles that direct our practice are like rules and standards.

Sometimes the testing of our own design is too much or it fails to move us forward. Even by our own self assessment and before Lent moves into Holy Week we have abandoned our fast or study.

Thanks be to God the measure applied from the one who watches over us is grace.  God's grace is always next whether we attend every session, say every prayer, or avoid every temptation.  God's grace is always next.

Perhaps we could acknowledge those instances when our own disciplines expose a truth to us well before the 40 days are past.  All that takes is for us to consider that these tests of our design just may be able however unintended to show us more of who we are, more of how we are God's, more of how the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is God's greatest grace to us.

No matter the test, God's grace is always next.