Fifteenth Day of Lent (Friday, 21 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

During Lent we come face-to-face with parts of ourselves we would rather ignore. As difficult as it is, it’s a beautiful work of the Spirit as we allow God to graciously reveal to us where we are still in need of forgiveness and healing, those places we have attempted to hide out of shame and regret. As the saying goes, “God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way.” Lent is a time when that truth becomes real in penetrating and transformative ways.

But as the Spirit probes our soul, we often find that it is not just sin that comes to the surface, not just a rebellious streak or a willful spirit. Sometimes, as we are brought to deeper places of honesty within ourselves, we come face-to-face with something we know is there but are maybe even less willing to admit: doubt.

As painful as it is to reckon with our sin, it is at least something we know we all struggle with. Paul knew the struggle and wrote about it. Jesus was fully human and isn’t shocked at all that we deal with it. Sin doesn’t come as a surprise. But doubt is a different animal. In many Christian circles doubt is seen as a unique spiritual weakness and fault, one we are shamed into denying should it ever rear its ugly head. How many of our churches are filled with people secretly struggling with seasons of doubt who are afraid to admit it, who then put on a mask of “everything is great” when around their church friends and family, the very people who should be most open to walking alongside us in those times?

The Bible doesn’t shy away from doubt and struggle. Think of all the people in Scripture who wrestled with their faith, people we tend to look to as heroes like Moses, Gideon, Abraham, and Sarah, to name a few…and yet we don’t condemn them for their uncertainty. King David wrestled with his faith on more than one occasion, and of course we have Thomas, the doubter who was no less beloved, who church tradition tells us spread the faith far and wide in the days of the early church.

Doubt is not defeat. As the 19th century Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond said:

“Doubt is looking for light.”

Doubt is looking for light. It’s acknowledging the places in our lives where the light doesn’t make sense right now, or where the light is simply hard to see. We can be brutally honest with Jesus about our doubt, just as we’re brutally honest about our sin. It is not failure to acknowledge doubt, it is failure to ignore it. We can learn a good lesson from the despairing father who said to Jesus in Mark chapter 9:

“I believe; help my unbelief!”—Mark 9:24 (NRSV)

As we make our way to Jerusalem with Jesus, we may even find ourselves doubting the journey itself. Whatever the doubt we’re struggling with, we begin to find the answers when we choose to acknowledge it and name it before the one who, as he did with Thomas, will meet us there and turn those doubts into places of encounter and worship.

Scripture for Meditation:

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
—1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)

Song: I Believe Help My Unbelief Part 2 (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

“I believe…help my unbelief.” When in your life have you most resonated with those words? If your answer to that question is, “Right now,” are you able to hear Christ’s invitation to name your doubts honestly and without shame? Wherever you find yourself on the spectrum of faith and doubt, spend some time in prayer acknowledging to God where it is most difficult.

Are there people in the biblical narrative who have helped you understand doubt and wrestling with faith? What about their story impacted you?

As we think about Jesus, “the fullness of the Godhead knit with our humanity,” what can in we find in his divine nature that can help us be honest about our doubts and struggles? What can we find in his human nature that can do the same?

Fourteenth Day of Lent (Thursday, 20 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

We offer many prayers during Lent. Prayers of confession, prayers of repentance, prayers of commitment and submission…these 40 days are a time of deep communion with God as we pour out our hearts to him and seek to be more conformed to the image of Jesus. We spend much of this journey to Jerusalem on our knees, crying out to God in faithful trust that he listens…and answers.

It is very unlikely that there is any one prayer God desires to hear from us more than another, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there is one simple prayer that brings a special smile to his face, and it’s this one:

Lord, I want to know you more.

The sad truth is that many of us who claim to be in relationship with Jesus are prone to treat it casually at times, causing it to languish and stagnate. We can take it for granted, and when we do, we lose sight of God’s call further and farther into his love, into a deeper and more intimate fellowship that knows no limit. The Lenten journey provides a counter to our casual leanings: as we meditate on the cost of our reconciliation we are exposed in all the ways we fall short in pursuing our relationship with Jesus with full passion and fervor.

This doesn’t happen to shame us or to tell us we aren’t doing enough. God doesn’t reveal our spiritual stagnation in order to make us feel guilty. He does it to draw us closer to himself, saying, “Gaze upon the cross. That is how precious you are to me. That is how much I desire to be in a relationship with you. I love you with an everlasting love and will go to any length to draw you to myself. The way has been made, the work is already done. Will you, in turn, draw near?”

Our response of “yes” to this invitation is this a prayer God is delighted to answer. As James reminds us:

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”—James 4:8 (NRSV)

And if that’s not where we are right now, that’s okay. In fact, that’s kind of the point. This kind of passionate pursuit isn’t something we can just stir up within ourselves. It only comes as we drop all pretense and simply be honest with God. Maybe in that honesty we add a couple of words to our prayer:

I want to want to know you more.

Again, that’s a prayer God is more than pleased to answer. It’s a handing over of our hardened hearts to the work of the Spirit, and Lent is a powerful season to take that step. The cure for our spiritual stagnation is to stop pretending it isn’t there and hear anew God’s invitation to intimacy.

Will you draw near?

Scripture for Meditation:

“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.”
—Philippians 3:8-9 (NLT)

Song: Knowing You (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

Can you remember the first, or a significant, moment when you realized that God desired to be in relationship with you? That he delighted in it? If that is a truth that you’re still seeking to know in your life, ask God to reveal to you in a new way the depths of his love for you.

How have you navigated times of spiritual stagnation in your walk with Jesus? When your passion for God seems to be in decline, are there specific prayers or practices you find helpful to keep yourself centered? If not, how might you ask God to be near to you during those times?

Try using this line from today’s song as a breath prayer: “I was made for You, to love and be loved by You.” Breathe in as you silently pray “I was made for You,” then breathe out as you silently pray “To love and be loved by You.” Repeat this a few times. Let the truth and beauty of these words feed your soul.

Thirteenth Day of Lent (Wednesday, 19 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

As we make our way to Jerusalem, contemplating the call of Jesus to take up our cross , there is a part of that passage that we sometimes overlook which deserves our full attention:

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’”—Matthew 16:24-25 (NRSV)

When we study and meditate on this passage, our focus is often on what we are asked to sacrifice, and rightly so. Jesus’ words are about our denial of self and our willingness to lay down our lives for his sake, and that should always be at the forefront of our understanding of these verses.

But note that Jesus also tells us what we gain in doing so. He isn’t describing a one-way transaction—there is an exchange that happens here. We come before him in humility and supplication. We offer up our lives as a living sacrifice to him. We turn away from self and turn towards the cross.

And what we receive in return is nothing less than life itself. The life we were always meant to know.

The demands Jesus places on us are not the empty whims of a deity who enjoys chastising his followers for their mistakes. Instead, they are the loving commands of One who knows what is best for us and who desires us to experience it. Dying to self isn’t punishment—it’s invitation. It’s a purging of all the things in our lives that are not of God, so that we might be open to the life he has for us.

Our Lenten journey is all about that openness. It’s all about a deeper experience of surrender, and in doing so we find a deeper experience of freedom, peace, joy, and love at the foot of the cross.

Scripture for Meditation:

“So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’”
—John 10:7-10 (NRSV)

Song: At the Foot of the Cross (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

How do you understand the relationship between “dying to self” and “having life abundantly?” In what ways has that relationship played out in your own life? How might God be inviting you to go even deeper in that experience?

What do you sense Jesus inviting you to lay down at the foot of the cross? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to do so, trusting that every deeper act of sacrifice leads to a deeper experience of God’s grace and power in your life.

Spend some time prayerfully considering the chorus of today’s song. Pray through each line, paying attention to the movement of your soul as you do so. What words stand out to you most? Why?

Now I can trade these ashes for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of Mercy
I lay ev'ry burden down
At the foot of the cross

Twelfth Day of Lent (Tuesday, 18 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

There’s a story told about a priest in England, many years ago, who felt a call to become a missionary to a dangerous country, a place where declaring (much less preaching) Jesus as Lord would put your life at imminent risk. As he made his way to the coast where he would board his ship, the priest found himself sharing a train compartment with a wealthy businessman, who took an interest in the young man of God’s story. After hearing it all, the businessman looked at him with great concern in his eyes.

“Young man,” he said, “I applaud your enthusiasm, but I must protest. It seems so futile to go to a place where spreading your faith could cost you your life. You’re so young, with so much energy and passion, with so much of your life ahead of you. Surely God could find a place for you to serve where you won’t find yourself threatened with death?”

The young priest thought a moment, then quietly took out the cross he wore around his neck and held it out in front of the businessman and said only one thing.

“He did this for me. Can I do any less for him?”

He did this for me. Can I do any less for him? That profound statement followed by a profound question has such a powerful message for us on this Lenten journey. During these days, we follow Jesus to the cross where he died, and we meditate on his call to die to ourselves so that we may find true life in him. That is the heart of Lent.

The image of Jesus on a cross is a difficult and disturbing one, but it’s also an important one. We might be tempted during Lent and Holy Week to “fast foward” to Easter Sunday, but we need to first consider and take in what happened on that hill of Calvary. We need to sit with what happened on that cruel instrument of Roman torture and execution. We need to take it in without giving in to our desire to empty the cross of its inhabitant, the one who loved us enough to go through that for us. Paul emphasized the importance of this in his first letter to the Corinthians:

“And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”—1 Corinthians 2:1-2 (NIV)

As we contemplate this amazing demonstration of God’s love during Lent, and as we listen for the ways God is stirring our souls to take up our cross and follow him, what else can we say?

He did this for me. Can I do any less for him?

Scripture for Meditation:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
—Romans 5:6-8 (NRSV)

Song: Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

Do you keep a cross with you, or on you in some way (necklace, carry in your pocket, etc.)? How can we build into our lives and our churches an intentional time of focusing on the cross?

Have you ever found a piece of art or depiction of the cross to be particularly striking and inspiring? What about it stirred your soul?

Read this quote by A.W. Tozer and think/talk about how it resonates with, or even provokes you. What is he saying here, and what in this teaching might we find helpful in our Lenten meditations?

“Though the cross of Christ has been beautified by the poet and the artist, the avid seeker after God is likely to find it the same savage implement of destruction it was in the days of old. The way of the cross is still the pain-wracked path to spiritual power and fruitfulness. So do not seek to hide from it. Do not accept an easy way.”—A.W. Tozer

Eleventh Day of Lent (Monday, 17 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

We spend so many of our days trying to be someone else.

When we’re young we spend a lot of playtime emulating our heroes, either from the ball field or the big screen. We model ourselves after the athletes and superstars to whom we look up, and we hope that one day we can be like them.

When we’re older we may no longer imitate celebrities, but we are still so often trying to be someone else. We push ourselves to present the image we think others want to see, whether they’re our supervisors, colleagues, or friends. We can even try hard to be different for our spouse, and if we’re truly honest with ourselves we are often attempting to be the version of ourselves we see in our heads, the one we approve of, the one we like better. For so many of us, so much time and energy in our lives is spent seeking to be another person.

Deep down inside we know something’s wrong. Deep down we feel the need to be different, to experience a change so profound it affects our very identity. The problem is, every single image or model we look to in this world will ultimately fail us in that quest. Tragically, we are now finding that to be true even for many leaders of the church to whom we look up and with whom we want to identify.

The invitation to us, at all times but in a particular way during Lent, is to set aside any desire to be like anyone other than Jesus. As Paul says in Ephesians:

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”—Ephesians 5:1 (NRSV)

Our desire should echo John the Baptist, who said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) What John meant for the outer, earthly world we seek for the inner, personal world. We yield to Christ, dying to self, and find that by the power of the Holy Spirit we become more like him.

During Lent this quest to emulate Jesus takes on a profound dimension as we ponder his self-sacrificing love. What we discover is that being like Christ is not just about choosing actions that emulate him, it’s about rooting our identity so deeply in him that his life begins manifesting in ours. And when that happens, we become the truest version of ourselves, because we are living as we were created to be.

Scripture for Meditation:

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit..”
—2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)

Song: Oh, To Be Like You (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

Who in your life has modeled the life of Jesus well for you? Spend some time in gratitude to God for people who have demonstrated the fruit of love, patience, forgiveness, love for God, and other qualities that are worthy of being desired.

How do you understand what it means to “be like Jesus?” What are some of the healthy ways you’ve found to pursue that in your life? What are some of the biggest hindrances in that journey for you? How is the Holy Spirit inviting you to seek it at a deeper level as you journey to the cross?

When the fishermen Peter and Andrew were invited by Jesus to be his disciples, they immediately dropped their nets to follow him. Entering into the life Jesus has for us sometimes requires us to leave behind parts of ourselves that, while not bad in themselves, are not part of our new identity in him. As you consider prayerfully God’s call to you to draw closer to Christ and be more like him, are there areas in your life he may ask you to hold very loosely and maybe even let go? Spend some time asking God to help you discern what in your life nurtures your life in Christ and what might not.

Second Sunday of Lent (Sunday, 16 March 2025)

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Sundays of Hope and Joy

We live in times of unprecedented anxiety. Anxiety is rooted in fear, but it is more than fear. Anxiety is fear looking forward—it imagines a scenario and lets it play out to its worst possible conclusion, then often causes us to react as if that conclusion has already taken place. Anxiety steals from a potential future and pulls us down in the present. Anxiety looks ahead and is afraid of what it may find.

In a secular definition, hope, like anxiety, also looks to the future. The only difference is that hope is about imagining a positive outcome rather than a negative one. Hope looks ahead and feels good about what it may find. But in both cases, the ultimate resolution is uncertain. In both cases, we are looking to the future and wondering what will take place.

Biblical hope is different. Before it looks ahead, biblical hope first finds its foundation in something that has already taken place—the resurrection of Christ. We don’t rest our hope on some imagined outcome that may or may not be assured, we rest our hope on the sure and certain truth that Jesus Christ, who was crucified, is alive. The tomb is empty, and the powers of sin and death have been defeated. That is where we find our hope!

That’s why these “mini-Easters” of Lent are so important. On Sundays we are reminded that we don’t find our hope in the possibility that something good may yet happen—we find our hope in the fact that the very best thing has already taken place.

With all that is happening in the world today it can seem hard to keep hope alive. The good news of Sunday, the message of these “mini-Easters,” is that hope is already alive. The forces of death conspired against it, but hope is alive. The grave tried to silence it, but hope is alive. And there are still voices today that will tell you it’s no longer real, but those voices are lying. Hope is most definitely alive.

Scripture for Meditation:

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”
—1 Corinthians 15:17-22 (NRSV)


Song: You Keep Hope Alive (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

Do you give in easily to the temptation to think that hope is about things that might yet happen? How might you find ways to ground your hope in what has already taken place on your behalf in the cross and the empty tomb?

How does the knowledge that Jesus is alive inspire hope in you? When has that knowledge been most real to you?

Today’s song talks about:

—hope in dark days
—hope in the midst of rising evil
—hope in sorrow
—hope in “the breaking.”

How has God ministered hope to you in your own experience of these? Spend some time in praise and thanksgiving for his presence and hope in difficult times.

Tenth Day of Lent (Saturday, 15 March 2025)

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Saturday Reflections

On Saturdays during our Lenten Devotional time we sill simply sit with an instrumental version of a well-known hymn or worship song. Our weeks are so full, so busy, so noisy…use these Saturdays to prepare your hearts for gathered worship by reflecting on lyrics and Scripture in a space of stillness and simplicity.

Today’s hymn was born out of a dramatic encounter with the love and grace of God. As a teenager, Samuel Taylor Francis struggled deeply with depression, and one night while walking on a bridge over the River Thames in London he thought for a moment of how the dark waters of the river could end his sorrows. At that moment he felt the presence of God, and he heard in his spirit the words of Jesus from John chapter 3: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” He met Christ on that bridge and experienced in that encounter the truth of Jesus’ words.

How appropriate that during the season of Lent, which is rooted and grounded in the message of God’s love and saving grace, that we pause to read words that Samuel Taylor Francis would later write about the deep, deep love of God he met that night.


Scripture for Meditation:

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 1may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
—Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)


Song: O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus (lyrics after video)

Lyrics for Reflection

Read through the lyrics of this hymn slowly and prayerfully. Read them more than once, and pay attention to the movement of your soul as you pray. What words or phrases grab your attention? Why? As you finish, sit in prayerful silence before God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you something of your need and God’s provision that emerges from these words.

O the deep deep love of Jesus
Vast unmeasured boundless free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me
Underneath me all around me
Is the current of His love
Leading onward leading homeward
To my glorious rest above

O the deep deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore
How He loves us ever loves us
Changes never nevermore
Watches over all His loved ones
Whom He died to call His own
Ever for them interceding
At His heavenly Father's throne

O the deep deep love of Jesus
Love of every love the best
Vast the ocean of His blessing
Sweet the haven of His rest
O the deep deep love of Jesus
Very heaven of heavens to me
And it lifts me up to glory
Evermore His face to see

Samuel Trevor Francis
Public Domain

Ninth Day of Lent (Friday, 14 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

When we enter the season of Lent, with so much of our focus on repentance as we meditate on the cross, it is important that we do not let our image of God go askew. This 40-day journey is not meant to inspire fear of judgment or cause us to withdraw from an image of God as an angry and vengeful deity, one who is eager to catch us in our sin and make us feel despised. That is not what Lent is about. Lent is always about God’s love, mercy, and grace shown supremely in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Yet there are many who struggle with that false image of God, and not just during Lent. Sometimes when we are face-to-face with the sin in our lives, immersed in the shame of feeling that we have disappointed or even angered God, it can cause us to withdraw. Like a child who is afraid of being punished, we lie about what we’ve done—to others, to ourselves, and we even may think we’ve gotten away with lying about it to God. And as that shame festers in our souls it becomes toxic, which can then further distort our image of God. It whispers horrible lies to us, saying, “You can’t go to God with this. You’ve disappointed him too many times. He has given up on you.” As our image of God becomes distorted, we can grow even more afraid of coming to him openly and honestly. It is a vicious downward spiral, feeding on itself in a frenzy of self-hatred and fear.

In Paul’s letter to Titus there is a wonderful passage that can help ground us if we’re falling into that cycle, where he writes:

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”—Titus 3:4-7 (NIV)

When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us…

The salvation of God is rooted in kindness and love, because God is love. Even as he hung on the cross, Jesus asked God to forgive those who had tortured him and put him there. If there was ever a picture of the “tender mercy” of God, you’ll find it there. It is the same tender mercy that David leaned on when confronted with his own fall into sin, lies, and deceit:

“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.”—Psalm 51:1-2 (NIV)

As you travel to Jerusalem with Jesus, be sure to follow his heart as well as his footsteps, for his heart is filled with love for you. As one anonymous 19th century preacher put it, he is “the fountain of all gentleness, all kindness, and all good.”

All gentleness…all kindness…all good…this is the one who invites you to walk with him.

Scripture for Meditation:

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
—Ephesians 2:4-7 (NIV)

Song: With Great Gentleness (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

Have you ever had to wrestle with a distorted image of God? What was at the root of that distortion? Spend some time in prayer asking God to clear away any image you have that is not true to who he is.

Are there specific Scriptures or practices that you lean on to be reminded of the kindness and love of God? What in your life helps you counter the voices that would whisper lies to your soul?

The song for today includes is built around an invitation:

Come to Jesus, He will never cast you out
Come you thirsty, put aside your fear, your doubt
With great gentleness, with great gentleness
He draws you, how He draws you,
See how He draws you to Himself

How have you experienced Jesus drawing you to himself? Spend some time in prayer offering your “yes” to his invitation to draw even deeper into his lovingkindness and covenant love.

Eighth Day of Lent (Thursday, 13 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”—Luke 9:51 (NRSV)

It is perhaps the most significant turning point (literally) in Jesus’ three years as an itinerant rabbi. After months of teaching and ministry in Galilee he turns south and “sets his face” towards the city of Jerusalem. It’s an image, not just of intention, but of resoluteness, like that of a prophet given an urgent message to deliver to the people (Ezek. 21:2).

Jesus knows what awaits him in Jerusalem. Earlier in Luke 9 he warned his disciples exactly what would happen when they get there. He will suffer. He will be rejected. He will be killed. Yes, he even lets them in on the greatest secret of all, the truth that he will be raised. The greatest glory will be revealed, but not before the greatest suffering. Jesus is well aware of this. He knows the terrible things that lie ahead, and yet he goes. He sets his face to go to Jerusalem. He has heard God’s call, and he answers with a single word.

“Yes.”

During Lent we, too, “set our face to go to Jerusalem.” We walk with Jesus to the cross of Calvary, where we will be invited to reflect on his death and what it means for us. But we do not travel merely as spectators. As we make our way to Holy Week we are reminded that ours is more than a journey of observation—it is also a journey of identification. We identify with Christ as we consider his command to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Each step we make towards Jerusalem becomes an opportunity for self-reflection, allowing the Spirit to find those places within us where we have not fully trusted Jesus or died completely to our own desires. As we walk with Christ, we are made to be more like Christ.

In a way, our Lenten journey echoes the words of Ruth chapter 1:

“Where you go, I will go, where you stay I will stay. Where you die, I will die.”

This is our invitation, and it’s not an easy one. The journey to Christlikeness is a constant revelation of our need, but it is also a constant revelation of God’s power to transform. What he asks of us is the willingness to lay our lives down at the foot of his cross, then to take up our own as we seek more and more what it means to identify with our Savior. May we, too, answer with that single word:

“Yes.”

Scripture for Meditation:

“Then he said to them all, ‘If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.’”
—Luke 9:23-24 (NRSV)

Song: You Have Our Yes (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

What does it mean for you to say “yes” to the journey of the Cross? How are you creating space during Lent to reflect on that invitation to take up your cross and follow. Jesus? How has he been meeting you there?

What in your life has the greatest power to divert you from the road to the cross? How can you regularly offer that to God, asking him to rob it of that power?

What does it mean for you to know that Jesus invites you to walk this path with him? Imagine it’s a literal journey and ponder what you’d like to talk with him about as you make your way to Jerusalem together. What questions would you ask him? What would you hope to hear from him?.

Seventh Day of Lent (Wednesday, 12 March 2025)

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Words of Reflection

There are many things about ourselves we are called to consider during the season of Lent: our sin and need for repentance, our mortality, our need to embrace self-denial as we lay down our lives…all of them opportunities for self-reflection that are fruitful and much-needed. We spend a good deal of time during these 40 days looking inward to the state of our soul.

But we are also called to look outward during Lent as we consider the sacrifice of Jesus, a practice which asks us to turn our gaze towards the brutal reality of what happened at the cross. We might embrace this call a bit more reluctantly, hesitant to confront the depth of the pain Christ suffered on our behalf. But it is an inescapable piece of our Lenten path, one that can’t be ignored without missing the heart of what this season is really all about.

Meditating on the wounds of Christ is an integral part of Lent, because the wounds of Christ are an inseparable part of our salvation.

It’s important to note that when Thomas is wrestling with doubt after the resurrection, it is the wounds of Jesus which bring him to the place of recognition and worship. The body of Jesus still bears the marks of his horrific death. As one of the characters in the Sensible Shoes book series reflects in her journal:

“…the testimony of Easter is that suffering isn’t erased from Jesus’ resurrected body. His wounds have been made glorious. They point to what he has done and how the Father has been glorified in the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son. The wounds tell the story of our salvation and God’s victory over the forces of evil, of death. Life wins.” (An Extra Mile, p. 274)

The wounds of Christ tell the story of our salvation. As difficult as it might be to spend time reflecting on them, it’s a necessary part of understanding the depth of what God has done for us. And understanding the depth of what God has done for us enables us to understand more deeply the breadth of his love for us.

In the wounds of Jesus we find the fulfillment of one of the most moving prophecies in all of scripture:

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”—Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)

Wounds that heal. That’s what we find in the nail-scarred hands and the sword-pierced side of Jesus. Because of those wounds, we can be made whole. Because of those wounds, all the things that rise to the surface in our time of self-reflection can be met head-on by the transforming love of God. There has been nothing else, there is nothing else, and there never will be anything else that can accomplish that for us. For this reason, we do well to meditate on those wounds as we make our way through this Lenten season. As Pope Francis said in a Lenten homily a few years ago:

“Enter into His wounds and contemplate the love in His heart for you, and you, and you, and me, for everyone.”—Pope Francis, 3/2/2018

Scripture for Meditation:

“When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
—1 Peter 2:23-24 (NRSV)

Song: Jesus of the Scars (lyrics here)

Questions for Reflection

Do you sense any resistance in yourself to the idea of contemplating the wounds of Jesus? If so, what might be behind that resistance, and how might you offer it to God in prayer?

Spend some time sitting prayerfully with these words from today’s song: “Our wounds cry out but yours will have the final word.”

The 12th century monk Bernard of Clairvaux preached these words in the 12th century: “Where can the weak find a place of firm security and peace, except in the wounds of the Savior? Indeed, the more secure is my place there, the more he can do to help me.” What do you think he meant by “The more secure is my place there, the more he can do to help me?” What does it mean to be “secure” in the wounds of Christ? Spend some time in prayer asking God to reveal that security to you in a new way.