Lent for Perfectionists: Freedom to Fast, Freedom to Fail

Lent is a season of preparation. Through these 40 days of reflection and repentance, we prepare our hearts and our lives to embrace Jesus’ passion—his death and resurrection on our behalf. This time is meant to stretch us in ways that both expose our need for Christ’s redemptive work and that invite us to apply it to our lives: what needs to be “put to death” in us? How is Jesus calling us to walk in newness of life? (Rom. 6:1-12)

This is the spirit with which we approach the disciplines of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. These ancient practices are tools in God’s hand to help us ask the above questions with greater clarity. They are diagnostic in the sense that they help to reveal the extent to which we “drink from cisterns” other than Christ (Jer. 2:13), and they are therapeutic in the sense that they help us to practice reliance on and devotion to Christ alone.

Here is what the disciplines are not intended to be: performative. We do not fast, pray, or give alms to earn God’s favor or escape his displeasure. Lent is not about what we can prove to ourselves or anyone else.  Rather, Lent is about embracing what God has already proved: we need a Savior, and His name is Jesus.

So as you take up Lenten practices, remember that they are just that: practices. They help us to practice our faith by leading us to repentance and by inviting us to strive for the holiness that is our birthright. If you fail to keep them as you intend, that’s part of the point. However you come to the end of these 40 days, expect to come to the end of yourself—so that you can find yourself anew in Him.