Asking why

We're knee deep into the Lenten season now. Those of us who grew up with no idea about the Christian calendar have never felt the deep connection to Lent that some around me now feel. To clarify for those who don't feel it now, Lent is a season, the season before Easter, of deep reflection. It is a season of sacrifice. It is a season of determination, as I preached Sunday. It is a season in which we should look at who we are and remember whose we are.

I call that any day that ends in a y.

I have so many faults that they are now on sale at E-Bay. But one thing I do not claim as a fault is my ability, no my necessity, to look at who I am and how I got here. It's almost a plague. Another addiction,

As with coffee in the morning, I look at what I have done and what I could have done with great regularity. Doesn't everyone? Well, I've discovered that, no, not everyone does.

So there's this season, this Lent, that is up to the task.

The Bible has more to say about reflection that one might thing.

In Proverbs, it says, "1As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart." Wow.

It says in Ecclesiastes that one who is happy seldom reflects. ^"Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart." Wow. Wow.

And in Paul's words to his student Timothy, he writes, "Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this." Wow. Wow. Wow.

Reflection isn't merely what comes back at you from a mirror. Paul even takes a shot at that. He reminds us that we can't even count on that. "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known," he reminds us.

Reflection is what we call looking deeply into ourselves, our actions, our thoughts, our opinions, the why of the formula.

Reflection is asking ourselves, "Why did we do what we did when we did it to whom we did it to?"

We don't always get the answers. I'm continually asking why, but not always getting the answers for why. I want to know, but I don't always probe properly or ask the right questions. Or sometimes, perhaps, I really, really don't want to know the answers.

It is good for us to ask why we do things. For it is only in the asking that we have a chance to change what it is we do. Clearly we all need to make changes for we all fall short of perfection, Paul tells us time and again.

Look deep at your sins this Lent. Look deep at the cause. Look deeper into the solutions to those causes. More often than not, that solution will be spelled J-e-s-u-s.