Ash Wednesday vs Valentines Day

In two weeks, many of us will be forced to make a decision: Is Ash Wednesday or Valentine’s Day more important?
 
Actually, given that dinner reservations need to be made in advance, many of us need to think about this now! The difficulty is compounded by the fact that shifting your Valentine’s Day plans a day earlier means missing the all-church Shrove Tuesday dinner and shifting them a day later means celebrating in Lent. Neither are optimal solutions, to say the least. (Shifting Valentine’s Day to Monday, on the other hand, makes a great deal of sense!)
 
It is important to state that our salvation doesn’t depend on observing Ash Wednesday—we are saved by the grace of God because of what Jesus did on the cross. Additionally, Paul explicitly forbids Christians from judging one another on how we keep sacred days (Col. 2:16). In fact, if keeping Ash Wednesday is an attempt to earn favor from God or other people, it would actually be better not to do it.
 
But assuming that we are entering into the spiritual disciplines of Lent for the right reasons—i.e., we aren’t trying to earn God’s favor or prove ourselves to be super-Christians, but instead seeking humbly to submit to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives—putting Ash Wednesday before Valentine’s Day makes a great deal of sense.
 
We need Ash Wednesday. We don’t need it in the sense of our salvation depending on it, but we need it to grow in grace. Growing in grace is like exercise—it won’t happen without concrete practices. Exercise, a good diet, and rest are the ordinary means through which God strengthens our bodies. Similarly, even though we can’t earn Christlikeness through spiritual disciplines (it is a gift of grace!), they are the ordinary means through which the Spirit works in us. God doesn’t “zap” us with Christlikeness in spite of spiritual inactivity; instead, he works through our willing and faithful participation in spiritual disciplines to transform us.
 
Ash Wednesday offers a critical moment for the disciplines of fasting and repentance. Like all spiritual disciplines, we should do these things regularly, but there are moments when we need to go “all in.” There are times to till the garden up and start over, times to empty the cabinets and clean the kitchen completely, times to hire a trainer and start afresh with diet and physical exercise. There are also moments when we need to spend a day without any distractions—like food and media—so that we can fully expose the dark corners of the closet of our heart. Too much of what needs to be repented of gets missed because we don’t set aside the time for rigorous self-examination.
 
If possible, set aside February 14 as a time for fasting and confession, and join us as we pray together to our God for mercy.
 
Steven+