Turn on the Spotlights
I think I get my frugal and prudent spending habits from parents who were products of the Great Depression when every penny counted. My Mom would sing out “Shut off the lights! Turn up the air conditioner!” And, in the winter, “Turn down the heat and put on a sweater!”
I see her in me. I keep my heat at 64 degrees at night and push it up only a few degrees in the daytime and I wear a sweater. I am so conscious of the electric bill that I often shut lights off and then, trepidatiously, must navigate my way to the next room!
I promise. I’m going somewhere with my history and economics lesson. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, when many Christians around the world go introspective with fasting, examining their lives and preparing themselves for Easter – Resurrection Sunday! Hallelujah!
At the beginning of Lent, some church traditions burn palms used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration and use the ash to mark a cross on the forehead of members of their congregation. It reminds them of their mortality and prompts them to examine their hearts and get right with God.
I paused yesterday to take part in Ash Wednesday and joined with brothers and sisters around the globe to reflect on my life and to ask God for forgiveness.
I am on purpose this season. I am turning on the lights brighter than ever inside the rooms of my heart, to search out areas that need a good cleaning. Lent is a beautiful time because it helps us to amp up becoming the very best version-of-ourselves.
But it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through an exciting collaboration between us and God. Psalm 139:23-24 says: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Here’s the deal: Inside our hearts, over time, some less-than-ideal habits show up in our lives. Habits like crankiness, unforgiveness, complaining, unbelief, fault-finding, and other areas that need to be exterminated and cleaned out. I know that “fault-finding” truth very well.
Right smack dab in the Lenten celebration, I found myself annoyed because a couple was chatting way too loud when I was trying to zero in on God’s presence. Immediately, I had to pray: “I welcome You, Lord, to help me look at You as I look inward and see myself clearly.”
And just like that, those secret places are illuminated, and we realize it is indeed “clean-out time”! Brace yourself, I’m lighting up this scripture and, yikes, it packs a punch: “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile.” (Mark 7:21-23)
Lord, have mercy! And bring on the high beams! I don’t like those “evils” because they all represent darkness. I sure don’t want them in my life. Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Placing the Bible (the lamp) at the center of our lives is like walking through the house turning on lights. “Ahh, that’s better. Yes, that’s brighter.”
The light of God’s Word keeps us from stumbling and helps us find our way. Today I’m praying: “Lord, please bring in your holy cleaning crew to clean out all the crevices, corners and hiding places of my heart. I’m singing: ‘Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God. May I be like You.’”