What’s the deal with (failing at) Lent?

What’s the deal with failing at Lent?

This is the question for today’s post. In our last installment, we looked at a more general look at Lent if you haven’t read that one, you should read it HERE first.

When it comes to Lent there are two kinds of people. People who are naturally disciplined people and keep all their commitments perfectly all the way through, and then there are the rest of us who make it through Lent sliding around like we’re walking on ice. Falling down and getting back up only to fall again. This is the crowd I’m addressing in this article.

If you’ve been perfect “lenting” so far, then maybe pray and ask God what additional thing you should give up. If it’s been easy, you haven’t given up the right thing/s. My theory is that you should be failing, we’ll come back to that in a bit.

For now, welcome to table all you who have failed. Let’s sit down and have a little talk about what we’re supposed to do when we fail at Lent.

There are two main temptations when failing at keeping up with the disciplines of Lent.

The first is to completely quit trying. It’s too hard. I can’t go another day without whatever comfort I gave up, I’m just going to bring it back and feel like a failure. The second is to subtly reintroduce the thing until you’re right back where you started.

At this point it would perhaps be beneficial to remember what we decided in the last post was the purpose of Lent (again you can read that post here). The answer I gave in that post was that the purpose was to make less of ourselves so that we might make much of God.

If we’re failing at doing Lent and recognizing that we aren’t able to even able to keep our own commitments for 40 days, then I think we are exactly where we need to be. Whether we get to this place through denying our comforts and realizing through the pain and struggle of keeping them, or whether we get there through feeling like a failure. Either way, we get to the first half of the very goal we were aiming at, to make less of ourselves.

So, what do we do?

This might seem obvious, but getting to the first half of the goal only gets us halfway there. If we stop at feeling like a failure, then we’ve actually accomplished the goal of Satan—the accuser! It isn’t enough to stop at failure.

We have to lean into the second half of the stated goal. Make less of ourselves, so that we might make much of God. We simply have to take our failures to the Lord and appreciate Him for His faithfulness on our behalf. As St. Paul tells us, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We have all failed in life in Lent or otherwise. We have all fallen short of the glorious existence that God set out for us. We all are living with the curse of death haunting our every move.

This isn’t the end though, the free gift of God IS eternal life. Glorious resurrection into that glorious existence for which humanity was created. Living in the presence of God.

This brings up another aspect of Lent that we haven’t discussed yet. That it teaches us patterns for living in the rest of life. We are going to fail… We are going to fall… We are going to live our lives like we’re walking on ice—up and down and back up again…

What this means is that the purpose of failing at Lent is to learn the pattern of repentance.

Let’s unpack this for just a moment. To repent loosely means to turn from one thing toward another. In this case from ourselves, toward God. Does this sound familiar to our purpose for Lent? Less of self, more of God. It is the pattern of our whole lives. It is why Jesus told us that following Him meant denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily.

The point of all of life and of Lent is not to be perfect, but to learn to be a natural repenter (I may have just made up a new word). We must learn by Lent or otherwise to quickly and continually turn from ourselves and our failures and turn to Christ.

I’ll just leave you with a psalm. The psalm of Lent, Psalm 51. I’d encourage you to use this psalm as a prayer. When you feel like giving up or feel like subtly returning to the comforts of Egypt, let us turn once again to the grace and mercy of our loving God. Don’t quit. Keep trying. Keep returning to God, that we might make less of ourselves in order to make more of God!

Psalm 51:1-12

51 Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

3 For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Grace and Peace,

Derek+