“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.”

Psalm 139:23-24

“I don’t want to!” These were the words of my five-year-old son a few months ago when we were in the midst of all the snow days and school being closed. My wife and I told him it was time to take a nap and as you can guess, with tiredness in his voice he said “I don’t want to” and then started to cry.

As we find ourselves in the season of Lent when we are called to slow down and reflect on our life, all its brokenness, and ultimately our need for God’s forgiveness, I believe it is easy to say the same words my son said, “I don’t want to.” This may be because we don’t have the time or we don’t believe we are in need of forgiveness or we just don’t want to feel guilty for our mistakes. But the reality is we need to slow down and reflect on our lives and most definitely our need for God’s forgiveness and strength. Because just like when my son finally stopped fighting the nap, he woke up a new and refreshed kid. The same is true when we stop and reflect on our lives and our need for God. We don’t do this to make ourselves feel bad. Instead we take this time to be reminded how lucky we are to have a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We slow down so we can see that maybe, just maybe we have been letting guilt weigh us down all along and that we don’t have to let it anymore.

I want to invite you to join with me in finding a time each week to slow down and allow God to search your heart so that like my son we may wake renewed and refreshed.

Prayer: Loving Father, in this season of Lent we are called to slow down and reflect on our lives and our need for You in our lives. Grant us the courage to do this and to allow You to search our hearts and make us anew. Amen.

Pastor Ladd Sonnenberg