Lent is about looking into the mirror. Not the compact in your purse or the mirror above the bathroom sink, and not the big mirrored doors in a hotel room that show more than you might care to see. The mirror of Lent creates reflections, for as author Annie Dillard reminds us, “how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” To ask questions about how we give, how we pray, and how we care for our neighbor is to hold a metaphorical mirror up to our souls. It is to lay open and bare before God our very lives, including all the things we hide from others and even that which we try to hide from ourselves.
Martin Luther said the whole life of a disciple is to be one of repentance. How might you use the 40 days of Lent this year for extended self-examination that leads to repentance? What would you have to say “no” to in order to say “yes” to extending your self-examination?
This is based on Looking Into The Mirror, a free program resource available from Women of the ELCA. It is available in Spanish and English. It was written by Linda Post Bushkofsky.
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