Bewilderment
– that’s the word that comes to mind for this season of Lent, that begins today
with Ash Wednesday. The world is certainly bewildered by all that is happening
today.
Yet,
as we look at the Bible, we see also the actions of our God tend to bewilder
people. He got Moses to tell Pharaoh to “let my (enslaved) people go.” Pharaoh,
lord of a world power, balked at first but he got to know who the boss is after
10 judgments. God brought his people to the edge of the sea bewildering his
people as to why they were stuck here, with the Egyptian army pursuing them. Then the sea parted and the Israelites crossed
over safely while Pharaoh and his army drowned.
Jesus
too bewildered the people he met. He bewildered Nicodemus with a seemingly
cryptic statement, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God
unless they are born again” (John 3:3). Today, on this side of the cross, many,
even children, can understand what this verse mean. Jesus bewildered Nicodemus’
colleagues in the religious elite by sitting down and eating with sinners. He bewildered
‘sinners’ like robbers, tax-collectors, women of ill-repute, etc., that God
welcomes them readily into his kingdom as his children: the Good News of a Good
God. Today, we take all these divine actions as ho-hum and mundane. After all, we
have heard them over and over in hundreds of sermons and so ‘it gets old’. But
they bewildered the people of that time who witnessed them.
I believe some bewilderment is good for our spiritual life. When I was a
computer programmer, I was trained to always re-look my program if the results did not come out the way I expected. Sometimes, it was plodding work looking at
the lines of code for syntax errors. Sometimes it was a clear mind needed to check
for logic errors. Many times, it also involved refreshed thinking that was not bogged down by the old, standard ways.
That’s could be the solution for our bewilderment this season: a refreshed thinking that expands us where we have been self-limiting once. However, that involves giving our glorious Lord real time to share his heart and thoughts with
us. Our problem is that we tend to give leftovers to our Lord. We pray for 5
minutes or we read a 5-minute devotional and we are happy with our spiritual
lives. We attend the programs of the church like assembling in worship on
Sunday, Christian Education classes but we do not set aside daily time intentionally
to read the Bible and walk with Jesus in worship and fellowship or talk to others about the Lord we have. We are happy with that.
I believe, the Lenten
period is a time of fasting and prayer for penitence and self-examination. It
should also be a time of ‘giving-up’. Ash Wednesday should be a sign to us to
re-consider what we should give up, e.g., TV, late-night supper, over-exercise, etc., in
order to draw closer to our Lord, this Lenten period. In truth, a disciple
should be doing these spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible study, confession,
self-reflection, etc daily. The 40 days of Lent is simply a reminder of our need to draw
close to our Lord daily. If we have not done so, Lent is a good place to start.
Let us pray daily and ask God for the grace
and perseverance to make the necessary changes that this might happen. After
all, our actions determine our habits; our habits determine our lifestyle; our lifestyle determines our relationship with Christ.
It is the small choices we make
daily that determine where our relationship with Christ stands. Then when these
spiritual
disciplines are part of our lifestyle, we will not get bewildered by things
beyond our comprehension. We will rest in the truth that though we may not have
the answer now, our sovereign Lord has the answer still, he is still in control
and is calling us to a situation to just trust in him.
