Lent Day 25
One of the pictures we keep coming back to during the lent season is the idea of a rubber band. We realize the tension that we experience dealing with sin and redemption, grace and justice, the present of sin and the future of heaven. And on the 25th day of lent, we feel that same tension but through pride and humility.
If you are like me, you sometimes make little pleas to God saying, “look what I gave up for you.” Some of it is probably pride, but some of it is my reminder to myself that being a disciple of Jesus is not just choosing to follow him, but surrendering everything.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German theologian/martyr, and one of my favorite Christian writers talk about how for many Christians faith has cost them nothing. In fact, he has a term for it. He says that salvation cost Jesus his life, but it has become cheap for you. He calls it cheap grace. And so when I think of surrendering to Christ, a part of me feels a sense of pride for what it has cost me.
But that’s where the tension comes in because at the same time, I’m feeling pride, I’m also feeling humbled by who I am surrendering to. James 4:6-10 says, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
What this verse tells me is that the pride I’m feeling is not self-gained pride, but pride to be associated with the one who has saved me. That my humility can be turned to pride as God draws near to me.
That’s the tension that I find myself in, completely humbled by the fact that God would want to be near me but full of pride that he is.