March 5: Return With All Your Heart

Around this time of year, many Christians are in the season of Lent. Some give something up. Some take something on. What does it mean for someone in recovery?

Joel called the people to return to God with all their heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Then he added a line that cuts through religious performance: tear your heart, and not your garments. In those days, tearing your clothes was a public sign of grief. Joel said God wanted something deeper than the outward show.

Then he gave the reason to come back. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness.

That’s the heart of Lent. Not earning God’s favor by giving up chocolate. Turning back toward a God who’s already gracious.

People in recovery sometimes have a complicated relationship with Lent. Maybe you’ve given up alcohol for Lent before, white-knuckled it for forty days, and then drank harder at Easter. That’s a common story. It shows the difference between giving something up and turning your life over. One is a temporary performance. The other is a real change of direction.

Step Three is the second kind. It’s not a forty-day project. It’s a decision to turn your will and your life over to God, for good, one day at a time. Lent can be a good season to make that decision, or to renew it. But the turning goes deeper than the season.

Joel’s words also speak gently about shame. Tearing your heart means being honest about where you’ve been. It doesn’t mean tearing yourself apart. You return to a God who is slow to anger. He’s not waiting with punishment. He’s waiting with open arms.

If you observe Lent, consider what you might take on rather than only what you give up. A daily prayer. A meeting each week. Reading a Gospel through. Calling someone every day. Practices that turn your heart toward God and keep it there.

One thing today

Choose one practice to take on for the rest of this season that turns your heart toward God. Start it today.

A prayer

Lord, I don’t want a show. I want to come back to You with all my heart. Thank You that You’re gracious and slow to anger. I’m turning toward You.

Turning is what Step Three is about.

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