It's the Trying That's Important

Lent is now all of ten days old. (Remember. we don't count Sundays as part of the Forty Days of Lent, since Sundays are always feast days.) We are one quarter of the way through.

Frankly, my Lenten penance plan has gone just about as well as my New Year's resolutions. I was going to read the Seven Penitential Psalms each day. I did really well on Wednesday, and then began to compromise --  I started a little late Thursday and so I figured five of the seven psalms would have to do, that I would make up the other two the next day, except then that on Friday, that got a little too long, so I just apologized to God and re-committed myself to doing better the next day. Except I forgot I was really busy on Saturday and never got around to anything except an another apology. Fortunately the next day was Sunday, and the rules say I got the day off. Maybe if I did one psalm a day? Man, that really sounded like a cop out. I should be able to do better...tomorrow.

Maybe it's just a rationalization on my part, but I think that failure at one's Lenten plan may have a value all of its own. If my salvation was dependent on how well I do complete my Lenten plan, I'm afraid I'd be on my way to hell, but I don't earn my salvation. It is a free gift from God. I don't necessarily get any closer to heaven by successfully avoiding chocolate for six weeks, although I may get some insight into how prepared I am to deny myself, pick up my cross and follow Jesus. If cross carrying is not to be relegated to the same file as losing weight, stopping smoking, regular exercise and saving for retirement, then I have some work to do.

But I think the biggest lesson from falling down on my Lenten plan is that I can't do it alone. I need the story of Lent. I need to remember what God has done for me. I need to remember that I wouldn't even be alive now without his direct intervention in my life (remind me to tell you about that someday).

So there are about thirty days left in Lent. I'm going to put two marks on my calendar today like they do on a bowling scorecard to indicate an open frame -- don't look back, look ahead. Even if I am face down in the dirt, tomorrow's another day. The sun'll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar, that tomorrow there'll be sun...well, at least I'm going to try again. It's the trying that's important.