I can make the best plans or make the hardest sacrifices, but that isn’t going to get me to heaven.
The prayers of the liturgy are rich, and one of my favorites is the collect of the Mass for Ash Wednesday: “Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.” I love the image of entering into battle with Christ for the next 40 days.
When I was praying with those words, however, I was also reminded of another verse: “The Lord will fight for you; you have only to keep still.” (Ex 14:14)
Fasting is good. Sacrifice is good. But sometimes we lose focus.
We make plans. We work hard. Drawing up Lenten plans for success, we decide to fast from social media or alcohol. In an attempt to fight temptation, we train our bodies to be submissive. Those are all good things. But we forget that ultimately, we can do nothing.
Christ wants us to join Him in the desert and battle with Satan. But think about it: before He did that, He was silent, alone, and in communion with His Father in prayer for forty days.
“The Lord will fight for you; you have only to keep still.”
Every time Lent rolls around, I know it’s my chance to start over. Whether it’s strengthening my prayer life, stripping my daily routine of clutter and distraction, eradicating a bad habit, or building new good habits, Lent is the time to transform things.
I make a plan. I make intentional decisions that will get me holy.
And then I fail. Whether in some large way or just a small thing, I generally find myself flat on my face at some point during Lent. Sometimes it’s failing at one of my Lenten sacrifices. Other times it’s finding myself sinning in other ways and frustrated that my Lenten plan hasn’t brought me closer to Christ. I look back at all my good intentions and my plans and I wonder what happened.
It’s because each year I forget that it’s not my plans, as intentional as I am, that are going to make me holy.
I can’t make myself holy. I can’t plan my way into heaven. No matter how good my plans, no matter how upright my intentions, I am not going to get myself to heaven.
God makes me holy.
We do have a part to play, of course. God doesn’t make us holy without our cooperation. So we need to make a plan. We need to strive for an ordered life. We need to embrace mortification so that we can grow in virtue and have the strength when temptation comes. All the things I have planned to work on during Lent are good.
But don’t forget that it’s His grace that transforms you. I can make the best plans or make the hardest sacrifices, but that isn’t going to get me to heaven. My cooperation with His grace will.
I’m a co-worker in this grand adventure, and I’m going to fail at that a lot. The important thing is to pick up the pieces and keep walking forward. Perhaps the lesson you needed to learn this Lent was humility.
Make a plan for Lent. Stretch yourself in your choice of sacrifice and be intentional in your prayer. He’s not going to bring you closer to Him if you don’t want it or if you don’t do your part. But then turn your plan over to Him and ask for His help. Ultimately, this season is not about accomplishing your Lenten to-do list.
It’s not about being transformed by your plan, but being transformed by Him. It might be that your Lent looks different on Holy Thursday than you had planned on Ash Wednesday. The question shouldn’t be, “How well did my plan work out?” but, “Am I closer to Him?”
What does God want even more than our ten-point plan to make this the best Lent ever?
He wants us.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
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