Letting God Do The Heavy Lifting This Lent

The prophet Joel urges us every Ash Wednesday to give God everything, holding nothing back from His pruning love.  “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart,” he says in the first reading (Jl 2:12).  

God wants all.  As a friend wisely put it, the greater the “no” to ourselves yields the greater “yes” to God.  God always asks for our whole hearts, no matter their current state or circumstances.  He wants them “even now”.  

Even now, God asks, when we’d really rather not.

Even now, God asks, when we doubt the gift of ourselves.

Even now, God asks, when the chaos of life ensues.

... when we wonder if it will be any different this time around.

… when we return with the same sins in the confessional again and again.

… when what He’s asking just seems too much.

… when we think we are doing enough to get by in our spiritual lives.

“Return to Me with your whole heart”, God whispers to our tired souls. God created our hearts, formed them, and wants to heal and fulfill them.  Lent can be a time that we are more aware of this and more resolved to respond by giving Him all.  And that time is now.  However, this awareness doesn’t necessarily mean anticipation.  Perhaps we ask ourselves, “what will I do this time?” out of exasperation rather than excitement.  Maybe we’ve become accustomed to viewing Lent through checkboxes.

“What will GOD do this time?” I propose we ask.  What transformation is coming?  What growth and healing will take place?  What deeper intimacy will the Lord draw us into?  How have we been denying Him rather than ourselves? How will we better know Jesus as Savior? 

This may be the most memorable Lent yet with visible and vibrant fruit. It may be a quiet season with very slow or painful growth. Whatever God has in store, we can trust that it will be for our good because He is trustworthy.  Now is a great time to get honest with the state of our hearts and start asking God what He wants to do in us and with us this Lent. That one thing that arises in our hearts when we do so? Let’s let God have it this Lent.  Surely it will require our own doing and cooperation and the Church in Her wisdom prescribes us regulations, but we can leave the heavy lifting to God.