When my computer isn’t responding properly and nothing I try seems to work, I press the restart button.  Often it seems to help and the problem is overcome.

I’m challenged by Lent – in a good way.  If I rise to the challenge – and sometimes I don’t – it can help jolt me out of some unreflective or self-defeating patterns of behaviour/attitudes I’ve settled into (which at some level feel unsatisfying, but nevertheless I can’t seem to find the motivation to change). 

Spiritually speaking, Lent feels like an opportunity to press the restart button.  To try some new things.  To stop some others.  It’s probably best not to be too ambitious – not a re-run of all those New Year’s resolutions that never made it past January 6^th, for example.  

No, this is a time to remember that God has done/is doing the heavy lifting on our behalf.  He’s made the supreme sacrifice on the Cross – besides which ours count for not a lot.  But he does ask for an open ear and a contrite heart.  We can ask for grace to offer these.  And with them, his Spirit can do the rest.

MICHAEL KIRKHAM