Lent’s Almost Over And I’m Still Not A Nice Person. Thank You, Lord!

I came to a realization over the weekend. Lent’s almost over and I’m still not as nice of a person as I’d like to be. I still spend way too much time thinking about myself and way too little time trying to serve others. What went wrong? Was my Lent a failure? Is there any hope for me?

After spending some time in prayer, I received a comforting answer. First, I now know that I need to work on getting to know Christ better. The fact that I can be very self-centered confirms that I’m lacking in this area. The good news is that it’s something I can work on. Second, if the only fruit that my Lent produced is the realization that I have a LONG way to go before people can look at me and see Jesus, my Lent was VERY successful. Many people never come to this realization. Now that I’m aware that I have a problem, I can continue to work on fixing it.

Those of you who have heard me speak or listen to my radio show know that I don’t pull punches when it comes to our faith. If I think we’re being lazy, I’ll say so. On the other hand, I do believe in offering hope (as does the Lord, who “who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” – 1 TM 2:4). Therefore, I suggest that we look at the glass as being half-full. We still have another week of Lent to go, so let’s keep pushing. On the other hand, the end of Lent doesn’t mean that we’ve lost our window of opportunity. We shouldn’t try to stop growing closer to Christ as soon as Easter rolls around. This is something that we should be working on for the rest of our lives. Therefore, if we recognize that there’s still work to be done…great! Let’s continue to work.

On my radio show this evening, I offered some suggestions for moving forward and becoming more like Jesus. After the Lenten Radio Retreat is finished I plan on helping all of my listeners (and me!) work on this by adding some new daily themes to my show. I’ll be revealing some more details in next few days. For now, however, I recommend that you listen to tonight’s show and try not to get discouraged. If you’re reading this, you’re still alive and that means it’s not to late to become a saint!

“As long as one is alive, each one can become a great saint, so great is the power of God’s grace. It remains only for us not to oppose God’s action.” (St Faustina)