What is in the Center?

She picks a big book off the table. Ever so carefully, she opens it to the center. “So, Mom, did I find Psalms, or Proverbs?” It's a common question in our house these days, and one that I enjoy hearing more than I can find the words for at this moment. My almost-5- year-old princess is becoming quite fascinated with the Word. She memorizes like a sponge and takes in the stories like living water. I praise God for these answered prayers. She has also learned, that if you take your Bible and very carefully open it to the middle, you will more than likely find Psalms or Proverbs. Like a Bible scholar in training, she practices several times a day. I LOVE this pastime. I relish it. I encourage it. I pray that it expands and grows.

But I confess, sometimes I giggle. Sometimes I bite my lip to stifle the laughter that wants to escape. Because, no matter how carefully you open those pages, it is very hard to find Psalms or Proverbs in your brother's World Record Book, in the Jumbo Star Wars coloring book, or in the Anthology of Whole Grain Baking.

She gets seriously bummed and even angry when you try to explain she did not actually find the wisdom she seeking. Because, she was looking, and, by her estimation, following the way that she was taught. But she has forgotten one detail. It matters WHICH book you use.

In the beginning of this Lenten season, I wonder how often we see ourselves mirrored in my daughter's search for Psalms and Proverbs. During this preparation time, we try and make more room in our lives to search for Truth, and Wisdom. We give up little indulgences or maybe we take on disciplines in hopes of seeing, and becoming a little more like Jesus. We follow the rules and examples hoping if we do everything right we will land where we intended.

But sometimes, I wonder, if in out quest to do Lent right, we are still somehow looking in the wrong place. We have made it about the challenge of lent. We have made it about working on ourselves and exploring what we can accomplish. (Instead we should work for Kingdom purposes while He molds and shapes us.) Maybe I spend too much time in the playroom, but it seems to me that leaving Christ out of the journey of Lent is akin to attempting to find Psalms in the Guinness Book of World Records. We have part of the picture engrained but we are still looking in the wrong place. And we may end up, bummed, or annoyed or angry when we realize that introspection and self-denial in and of themselves are only a form of selfishness masquerading in robes of false piety. They cannot and will not lift up the Christ we wish to see.

I am not saying we should abandon Lenten disciplines. I am saying we should look at the direction they point our hearts. Jesus echoes the words of the Prophet Hosea as he talks, saying, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6, Matthew 9:12). Pious discipline for pious discipline's sake (or for the sake of the challenge) will not point us toward redemption. Disciplines that place us in a better position to spread the mercy of the Kingdom here and now will allow us to be Easter people and reflect His light.



What discipline, or what fast have you taken on in this season?

How will you actively serve the Kingdom of God in this time?

Where do you go for wisdom and strength when the Lenten season proves difficult?