Luke 22:62

I have seen it so many times throughout the ministry: Those remorseful eyes that said what the tongue refused to speak, “Guilty of sin, and a disappointment to the Lord.” I said to him, “You should be ashamed of yourself.” He just stared back at me. With nothing left for either of us to say I tried to walk away; but he would not leave me. Each time that I looked back, he was looking back at me. I was the preacher, the holy one (whatever that means); he was the sinner, and I knew it well because he was also the man in the mirror.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I like to call it “Spring Cleaning,” or getting ready for Easter. Like the woman who lost the coin in Jesus’ parable, we may need to sweep the house to find what we have lost. Lent starts in the ashes of our life but should end with a clean heart and a new robe and shoes on our feet that are ready to walk with the risen Lord.

The devil is having a “hay-day,” and we are giving him all the hay he wants. We have become a nation of people obsessed with the wrongs of others while ignoring our own. One example is Social Media: “How easily the ‘pointing finger’ writes.”

Can we go forty days without accusing others of things that are not so different from the things we do? Dare we bring a mirror to the place we pray as we turn accusations into confessions? Do you remember Jesus’ parable about the two who went to the temple to pray? One said, “I thank you God that I am good, and that I am not like that sinner over there.” Over there the sinner prayed, “Lord have mercy on a sinner like me.” Jesus said that the penitent sinner went home “right with God.” How will we go home?