What’s Wrong With Me?

As the meeting room filled with guests at St. Leonard’s Ministries, an Episcopal Charities ministry partner, many were formerly incarcerated men – and women – who, for the time being, called St. Leonard’s home.  Waiting for the meeting to begin, I mingled.  As some shared their stories, I was surprised how easily they named the reasons for being in jail. Assault. Robbery. Attempted murder.

Oh, how blessed it would be for us if we could so readily confess our crimes to each other; the times when we fell short of our own plans. And, the times when we fell short of what God expects of us. But, that would first require us to know what those expectations are and what ‘crimes’ we committed. We’re not very good at that. We spend so much energy covering up our failures (sins) we ultimately convince ourselves we’re o.k.  ”The heart is deceitful above all things…” [Jeremiah 17:9]

If repentance is a key part of our Lenten journey we need an objective standard against which we measure our performance. That standard is the Bible – the “living, active…discerning” word of God. This is why we spend so much time in scriptures, especially at the beginning of Lent. It gives us a true baseline assessment of where we are…and a glorious picture of what God holds in store for each of us at the end of the journey.