Day One | February 22 ONE

The Promise

(Ash Wednesday)

Who are you? There, as you read this, who are you? Are you the totality of all your experiences? Or the sum of all your assets? Are you the amalgamation of all your thoughts, the product of all your dreams and desires and wildest imaginations? Are you identified by all your successes or defined by all your failures? Are you your joy? Your peace? Your faith? Your façade? Who are you? And who are we?

In truth, we don’t really know because we are still becoming who we are. We don’t really know because, actually, there are three of us reading (or writing) this right now: there’s the person we think we are, there’s the person others think we are, and then, there’s the person God knows we are. And Lent is determined to introduce us to that person (maybe for the first time).

Perhaps we have forgotten who we are. Maybe we’ve forgotten who we’ve been created to be as we’ve locked that beautiful and divine spark behind walls of pretense and deception and mimicry. Like an onion, we’ve hidden behind the layers of our defenses. We’ve allowed no one to get to know the “real us” – not even ourselves. Maybe it’s because we’re scared. Maybe it’s because we’re ashamed. Maybe it’s simply because we don’t think that others can see beyond our scars to appreciate our souls.

Whatever the cause, Lent invites us to peel back those layers, to delve deep into those longforgotten memories, to rediscover that long-hidden person that God created to love and for love.

It was one of those moments – a powerful, intimate moment – that we’re invited into: Jesus sitting with His disciples – tired, interested, curious, concerned. And, like He was prone to do, Jesus asked them a question: “Who is it that people say I am?” But after several responses, He made it personal: “But who do you say I am?”

It was Peter (as he was prone to do) who spoke first. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

The Messiah. The Christ. The anointed One. The promised One. He was the One expected for centuries, here before their eyes … and before ours. Anointed with the oil of sinners and by the tears of the su ering, He was the fulfillment of their greatest needs and the culmination of their utmost hope – but in ways they could never expect. He knew who He was, but He needed them to know, too. So, He showed them – not just in words, but in action … a long-awaited promise made real in flesh and blood.

Who are you? Maybe the only way we ever get to answer that question is by answering Jesus’: “Who am I?” – because it’s not just a question for Lent; it’s a question for life. And when we finally free ourselves from all our game playing, when we rediscover our true self, then we are truly free to surrender our everything to the One without whom we are nothing. For it is only by heeding this season’s call to repentance (“re-turning”) and selfreflection that we can truly confess Jesus as our Messiah, the fulfillment of our promise.