Sin, Confession, and Lent

Approaching Easter Day, it is easy for many people to overlook the season of Lent. Lent is the season leading up to Easter, in which we dwell on our sin and lowliness. The tradition of Mardi Gras actually arises from the season of Lent. Mardi Gras has become the day in which people party as if it is the last day before they really have to get serious about their sin.

And certainly this can be a wrong outlook to life and Lent, as if we should sin as much as we can to make up for a sinless Lent. But there is nothing wrong with a season to help us better understand our sins. It helps us better look forward to Easter. It makes us all the more joyous when Easter comes, and we realize that despite our sin and lowliness, there is Someone who covers up our sin, and has resurrected with glory so that we may resurrect with glory at the Final Resurrection.

It seems just like yesterday Lent just began, and now it is about over. I remember feeling bad that I missed our church's Ash Wednesday Service -- a service that is really humbling. I know I have not dwelt on my sin enough, but it is never to late for me, nor you, to see our sins.

We have all sinned, and we should not forget that. In lives in which we so often forget about our sin, it is good to humbly look over our lives. Whenever we think we have it all together, that other people should learn from us, we should be humbled to see our sin and our misery apart from the grace of God. We have all failed in all of the Commandments. We have all put something ahead of God; we have all made and constructed things that we in some spirit worshiped; we have all used God's name in a manner that did not go to give Him full praise and adoration; we have all forgotten that the Sabbath Day is the Day of the Lord, and we have opted to work for our own personal benefits instead of worshipping God corporately each week; we have failed to honor our parents, not that we even honor those below us either; we have all taken something that was not rightfully ours; we have all looked to some other person with some sort of lustful immoral thought; we have all had unrighteous anger toward a fellow man; we have all spoken falsely against our fellow man for only our own personal immediate sake; we have all desired for and even complained about something else someone else had that we did not. This covers each Commandment. We are all sinners, of whom I am of the worst.

Of course, I do not write this to scare you into thinking that there is no hope; rather, I write this to show you just how great the Hope is, and how desperately we all need it -- everyone of us. So I encourage you to look at your sin, and perhaps instead of complaining about that person you know who is weird, that person who is acting unwise in any sort of relationship right now, that person who is always late to everything when you are always on time, that person who cheats on tests, has excessive foul language, who seems to have no respect for his parents, seek forgiveness for yourself, and then humbly share it with others. Confess your sin to God -- even specific sins. Feel free to confess many of your sins to others around you. If you have held a grudge against someone, get rid of it, and lead by example in recognizing your own faults even to them. Build each other up in the Lord as Paul spoke of -- even people you have perhaps been angry at or looked down upon for a while.

Didn't Jesus tell us to consider the plank in our eye before looking at the speck in someone else's eye? Didn't Paul tell us that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God? Perhaps we should all personalize these issues, and stop complaining about other people.

Just a thought.

What do you think?

God bless America

Pray for our Troops

March 12, 2008

Ryan Hampton