Lenten Surprises

Based on an article by Frederich Buechner

After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask what it means to be themselves. When considering the “surprises” that God can give us, consider these questions and the possible "surprise" answers.

If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn't, which side would get your money and why?

When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you like least?

If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?

Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you’d most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?

Is there any person in the world, or any cause that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?

To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are, but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. Indeed, the answers that we give can be quite telling for us, and our “surprise” answers might be hard to give, but if the Lenten disciplines of prayer and repentance are at the beginning, then something like Easter may be at the end.