HUMANS ARE FORGETFUL BEINGS. Sometimes our forgetfulness is fairly innocent: misplaced keys, a lost phone, or a wrong turn. At other times, our absentmindedness has a greater and costlier impact: missed family milestones, neglected relationships, or lapsed promises. And perhaps most significantly, it is possible for us to forget God.

We may live and breath and journey through life, yet do so entirely unaware of the nearness of God and his desire to be known by us. Into this spiritual amnesia, the Psalms today are a source of incredible hope. Though we may forget God and fail to remember him, he remembers us and sustains our every moment.

Any movement away from forgetfulness and into a true knowledge of who we are in Christ is celebrated and cherished by our Lord. God remembers our offerings (Ps 20:3), even when we forget them. Though our hearts and minds may stray, he delights in our movement towards his mercy and in love and gentleness reminds us of who we are in him.

In this way, Lent is a journey of remembrance. As our Lord remembers, knows, and upholds us, our memory is restored to us. Quite literally, we are re-membered as we are held in the memory of God. We learn, slowly but surely, who we are and whose we are.

Inhabit (a devotional journal for Lent by Dwell)

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE? Where are we headed in this journey of faith? Without clarity on questions such as these, we may be active and engaged in practices of faith without the ability to see how the individual parts contribute to the whole. For St. Paul, there is no ambiguity surrounding the vision that animates his pastoral care and missionary zeal: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10-11).

Anything less than resurrection life with Christ is a failure to see and pursue the fullness of the Christian faith. Every act of discipline—prayer, Bible study, fasting, serving the poor—that is not oriented towards a deeper encounter with the living God in Christ is severed from its intended purpose. In a season focused upon intentional acts of discipline, this clarity of vision is more important than ever! We seek to rightly order our lives, not as an end in and of itself, but as an entry into communion, joining Mary as we worship in adoration at the feet of our Lord Jesus (John 12:3).

Inhabit (a devotional journal for Lent by Dwell)

Have the disciplines you’ve embraced in Lent become ends in and of themselves, or are they opening you to a deeper life with God?

In honor of this season, I will be posting inspiring music for most of the next 40 days. I hope you’ll use this music as an opportunity to quiet and settle yourself; for contemplation, preparation, and thanksgiving. May you be encouraged and realize the felt presence of Peace and Love as you hear the music; may you hear the message meant for you in each of the musical offerings. Wishing you peace and every good!

IT’S RIGHT ENOUGH TO THINK OF LENT AS spiritual work—something we do, try, give up, add, or offer to God. But anything we do with God is both analogous—comparable—and disanalogous—completely incomparable—to its counterpart in the human realm. If Lent is spiritual labor, spiritual exercise, it does us the most good when offered to God and done his way. Just as stopping in God’s time can mean advancing, and giving can mean receiving, and being last is first and best, work in Lenten time is also Sabbath.

But during Lent, anything we remove from or add to our lives as a discipline should only serve to create room for more attention to God—to let the land lie fallow for a season. We refrain from grabbing all we can and instead reduce (even reduce what we expect from Lent, perhaps!), slow down, and pay attention to what thoughts, feelings, or desires might come nosing out of the woods of our hearts, like wild animals searching for Sabbath grapes.

In Lenten time, constraints should lead to liberty. They’re an invitation to feel our need for the Lord, for his mercy, provision, and timing, so that in this looser, more “jubilee” frame of mind, we might lighten our heart’s load.

Inhabit (a devotional journal for Lent by Dwell)

1 Timothy 4: 7-8

⁷ Don’t waste time arguing over foolish ideas and silly myths and legends. Spend your time and energy in the exercise of keeping spiritually fit. ⁸ Bodily exercise is all right, but spiritual exercise is much more important and is a tonic for all you do. So exercise yourself spiritually, and practice being a better Christian because that will help you not only now in this life, but in the next life too.