LENT 2020: Day 18

• Lent 2020: Day 18 Tuesday, March 17, 2020:
  Psalm 81; Genesis 29:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4

     Sing gladly to God our strength,
          shout out to the God of Jacob.

The Psalmist begins with praise. And rightly so, for the LORD speaks and offers a reminder of Israel’s deliverance.
    I am the LORD your God
          Who brings you up from the land of Egypt.
              Open your mouth wide, that I may fill it.

And yet —
    But my people did not heed my voice
          and Israel wanted nothing of me.

We are quick to look to God in times of hardship, in times of crisis, in times when we know we can’t make it on our own.

But we are fickle creatures. And so, after the crisis is over, after the dust settles and we return to some sense of normalcy, we have a tendency to drop our reliance on God as soon as possible.

Lent is the opportunity to refresh, to reboot — or, better yet, to upgrade — our operating system.

Most affluent Americans, like us, have an operating system that, consciously or unconsciously, emphasizes self-reliance. And that makes sense. We can and do provide for ourselves.

And so it can be a little jarring when a crisis hits — be it the loss of a job, or a medical diagnosis, or a global pandemic — and we suddenly can’t rely on ourselves.

Those are the times that send us back to God.

Lent is a time to intentionally become less self-reliant.

As we continue our Lenten journey, may we learn new spiritual practices — or, as it may be, reclaim old spiritual practices — and to establish new habits that orient us towards a reliance on God.