Do you remember what January 9 was like? If you set a New Year’s resolution, January 9 would be about the time when you might have encountered some resistance to your resolutions. It may have even been the day you realized you had already abandoned them.
This phenomenon is real enough that the second Friday of January, which this year was the ninth, has earned the moniker “Quitters Day.”
We are in range of the time when things can get a little rough in terms of maintaining fasts or holding to our intentions for this season. Now, I recognize that you might not even celebrate Lent, but keep reading anyway, because I have a word of encouragement that applies to more than just Lenten spiritual practices.
On day 4 of Lent, I had my first incursion with the annual battle I have with Lenten guilt. Each year, there comes a point in which I have to reckon with my frailty and my failure to “stay on the horse” of my planned fast and observances. This year it came nearly right out of the gate.
Some rhythms were already off; I had missed one of my practices. Other things just felt wonky. I had chosen a specific devotional to use for Lent. After a few days I realized it was written in a weekly format instead of daily, so already I was casting about for a better “rhythm” there.
Saturday morning my “performer” guilt started in on me. This is the voice in my head that accuses me of failing to live up to expectations and tries to stir up a lot of fear and frustration in me that I am going to “get in trouble” for not “getting it right.”
Can you relate at all to this internal monologue?
Just as I was heading over the self-condemnation cliff, the Holy Spirit nabbed me: “Lent is about the pursuit of the Person, not the practices.”
Whew. At the last second before the shame could set in, God grabbed me with the truth: Practices and spiritual observances are to serve the goal of communion with Christ.
This holds true whether the practices are Lenten ones or other daily things we do like Bible reading or prayer or worship. The practices are not the end themselves. They are the means to union and fellowship with Jesus, of worship and adoration of One who is so very worthy of that attention.
When our attention drifts over to how we are doing or if we get focused on our failure to perform, then we have missed the whole point of what spiritual practices and disciplines are about. We are to keep our eyes on Jesus, laying aside every hindrance (Hebrews 12:1-2). Even if that hindrance comes from an internal twisting of well-intentioned Lenten observances.
Of course our spiritual practices are useful. I am not advocating abandonment of them. I am just echoing the Holy Spirit in encouraging a proper framing of them. This is so our thinking about things like Lenten fasts or daily time in the Word and prayer doesn’t become a minefield of guilt, or worse. It is possible for one’s quest to unerringly execute something like a Lenten to become an idol.
So, if you have hit the “quitters day” phenomenon of struggle with your Lenten intentions, you are not alone, and you are OK. And if you are not a Lent observer, that is OK too.
Wherever you are in all that, I leave you with the words of Paul to the Philippians, as he contrasted his own pedigree with the higher value of knowing Christ:
“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider themworthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.” Philippians 3:7-9 NLT
This weekend consider…
Setting aside to pay attention to your own heart when it comes to your spiritual practices and rhythms. What do you notice? Is it guilt, gratitude, grace?
Talk with the Lord about what you notice. Ask Him to reveal His purposes and perspective for where you are right now.
Meditate on the call from Paul in Philippians 3:9 to depend on faith, and ask God to strengthen yours.
May you find more of Him in faith,
Elizabeth
Struggling with the temptation to find your identity in your works or performance? I get it. I lived there a long time (and obviously still wrestle with those “old man thinking” traps). Maybe a reorientation to the truth of who you are in Christ is in order. Check out my book Fully Known, Fully Loved for 30 days of re-centering truth about who you already are in Christ.