Daily Unwind for Lent

[et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="3.0.47" custom_padding="4px|0px|0px|0px"][et_pb_row custom_padding="0px|100px|0px|100px" _builder_version="3.0.47" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" _i="0" _address="0.0"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.0.47" parallax="off" parallax_method="on"][et_pb_image src="https://drwadearnold.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/cristian-escobar-297114.jpg" _builder_version="3.0.77"][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding="27px|50px|0px|50px" _builder_version="3.0.77"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.0.47" parallax="off" parallax_method="on"][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.0.77"]

I’m not one to make outlandish claims, but I am willing to go out on a limb with this one. A daily review of your life has the power to spark a transformation in your life. Many of us have a tape playing in our heads that we have a really hard time stopping or pausing. Those two buttons on our tape player have been broken off. The problem is that this tape has all these negative images and phrases about ourselves.

“I’m not good enough.”
“I’m not pretty enough.”
“I’m not smart enough.”
“I’m not strong enough.”
“I’m not [whatever] enough.”

At the same time, many of us wonder what God is up to. We wonder if God is still active in our lives. We wonder where God is. We wonder, like David did in the psalms sometimes, why God has abandoned us and it feels like we are left on our own. In Psalm 13:1-2, David writes:

How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Sometimes God works in subtle ways that unless we slow down, we might miss what He is doing. In order to counter this tendency to overlook God’s activity in our lives and to combat the tendency some of us have toward negative self-talk, let's ask ourselves these six questions at the end of every day.

What did I see God do?

We don’t see what we aren’t looking for. It’s amazing to me how to different people can be looking at the same thing and yet see something totally different. I like photography, and I have learned that as a "photographer," I have to look at the world in a very different way. Someone may be striking a great pose, but if we fail to notice the trash can in the background, the photo is pretty much unusable (photoshop not withstanding). If we want to see God working in our lives, sometimes we have to look in the background so that we can actually see what we might otherwise overlook.

What am I thankful for?

The amount of research support for gratitude and benefit-finding is overwhelming. Giving thanks is good for the soul. But we don’t need social science research to support our thanksgiving. We are commanded by God to give thanks in everything (Philippians 2:3-4). In every day there is something, however small, for which we can give thanks.

What did I do well?

In almost every day, there is something we did well. Even if that something is not killing (metaphorically speaking) our children when they completely lost their minds at bedtime. There is a time for modesty, but there is also a time to take pride in our work or some other aspect of our life. And let’s not confuse appropriate pride in a job well done and the type of pride that separates us from God. A job well done is a gift from God (see questions 1 & 2). Pride that separates us from God…well, that’s a problem.

What sin did I commit?

The reason this question is fourth is that if you have a lot of negative self-talk going on in your head already, it is way too easy to get stuck in the negative feedback loop. Starting off on a more positive note in our daily unwind reduces the likelihood that we will get stuck in that negative cycle. But it is still important that we deal with our sin, and our sinfulness. I like praying this prayer from Psalm 134:23-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;

And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

The goal of the Christian life is to allow God to recreate in us the image He placed in us at creation. So, confession of sin is not just making a list of particular ways we have not lived up to our own expectation or the expectations of others or even God’s expectations. Confessing our sins is an acknowledgment that we have acted contrary to our God-given identity in Christ.

What do I need to keep? What do I need to let go of?

Have you ever noticed how the things we worry about one day tend to carry over to the next? If you are a negative self-talker, it’s likely that you can’t get to sleep, or you wake up early rehearsing all your short-comings. At the same time, you probably have a really hard time keeping the good stuff in your head at all. And if anything good does come to mind, it’s probably met with a “Yeah, but…” One of the great benefits of this daily unwind is that we can reverse this tendency to hold on to the bad stuff and discount and disregard the bad stuff in a very intentional way. Keep the good; junk the bad.

Unwinding Daily for Lent

Lent starts with Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2018. Lent is a time of preparation for Easter. It is generally observed as a time of penance and acts of self-denial. These practices are important, and I’ll have more to say about them. But the point of Lent is to open ourselves to the work of God in Christ on our behalf. The point of Lent is to disentangle ourselves from sin so that we can live in unimpeded fellowship with God. The point of the daily unwind is the same: to open up the possibility of a deepened and strengthened relationship with God in Christ. This simple practice holds the possibility of allowing God to untangle us from all the sin in our lives allowing God to transform us into the likeness of Christ, which is God's umltimate purpose for all of us.

Leave a comment below to let me know how this practice has helped you. Share this post on almost any social media platform using the buttons below.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]