Lent and The Habits of Grace

As we start this season of Lent, it is a time that starts with ashes and will end with a celebration - it starts with ashes and death and will end in life and resurrection. That seems to be the natural rhythm of things, does it not? There is always death before resurrection joy. Anyway, Lent is a time when we seek to weed out things that inhibit new life from taking root in our lives. Lent can be a time of amazing freedom. As I look back over the years, it has been the discipline of Lent that God has used in my life to break many sinful habits that had a strangle hold on my joy and to develop new habits that were life giving. One of the huge benefits of Lent is that it is a time to think about “habits of grace,” or “rhythms of grace.”  For our purposes let us just think of habits - the making and forming of good Godly habits. I preached on the “Habits of Grace” last year and can think of no better thing for us to ponder during Lent than this. What follows is an edited version of what I wrote about the “Habits of Grace” at the beginning of last year. I looked it over and thought, “Yep! That sounds about right.” I hope it does to you as well. I have come to this conclusion - Godliness is about forming habits. Here is the reason. The late Dallas Willard, who wrote extensively about ‘spiritual formation,’ said this, “There are no correspondence courses in the Kingdom of God: to be a disciple is to go with Jesus in study, obedience, and imitation.” What he is saying is, no one ‘lucks’ his or her way into a well-lived or noble life. While grace is never earned in the Bible, the Bible does talk a lot about the Christian life as ‘a path,’ ‘a way,’ or as Eugene Peterson says, “a long obedience in the same direction.” It is for this reason that information is never enough, and ‘truth’ must be internalized and, with effort, formed into habits. A habit is defined in the dictionary as: a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance; an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary. I like that.Before I go on, let’s be clear about what grace is. We receive grace freely because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. The cross saves us without our effort. Jesus does everything for us. That is what the gospel is. As the truth of the gospel gets into our hearts and minds, it melts us. And out of a sense that we are accepted freely because of Jesus’ perfect record and not our performance we move on to grow out a sense of inner fullness and love. “Habits of grace” are things that flow out of the cross and out of a heart amazed at what Jesus has done for us. They are things that do not make Jesus love us more, but things that flow out of our love for Jesus.The older writers on ‘spiritual formation’ called these practices ‘disciplines.’ I prefer habits or rhythms because I typically live my life in weekly cycles and, if I know what the habits are that lead to spiritual formation, I can quickly do inventory and know why I am thriving or see why I have lost my joy.  Think about it like this: if you are a basketball player, there are certain things that you must do to be a good player. You have to dribble, defend, pass, score, and take care of the basketball. It doesn’t matter if you are seven feet tall or five feet short – everyone has to develop these skills or you will find yourself on the bench. So a coach is not being mean or harsh if he points out that you are not getting better and shows you new ways to improve. Also, the wise coach knows that the size and gift sets of different players dictate that some will be better at some skills than others, but he must possess these skills or competencies.In the Christian life, if you are to thrive and continue to grow in grace, it is the same way. There are certain ‘disciplines’ or ‘habits’ that, unless you take them on, you can’t hope to grow in grace. Here at St. Patrick we talk about seven Habits of Grace that are part of our daily and weekly rhythms: The Soul Room – meeting daily with God to know his friendship; Worship – meeting God with the people of God weekly; and Community – gathering often with people where you can know and be known. There are four more but this is a good place to start a life of knowing God’s friendship and lordship.These habits flow out of our Vision at St. Patrick and our Purpose. Our vision is what you see everywhere around St. Patrick – Loving God, Loving People, Loving Life. Our purpose is more concrete, “To make disciples of Jesus who, in the everyday, love God, love people, and love life.” That is what St. Patrick Presbyterian Church is called to do. The great win for St. Patrick is not if we build more buildings, or collect more money, or get more people coming, because that is not what our purpose is. Our purpose is more concrete – to make new or better disciples of Jesus in the mundane rhythms of life who love God, love people, and love life. That is it. (If we do that, I suspect it will impact our size, our need for buildings, and increase our giving!)I used to hate this idea of ‘habits’ because it seemed to reduce my freedom, or at least the cultural idea of freedom. However, what I have learned with age is that habits are the only things that give you freedom and competencies! Anytime you watch a great basketball player, musician, or singer at the height of their ability, when what they do looks effortless and filled with grace – you know they didn’t luck their way there, or just wake up one day having never developed the habits of their craft like a virtuoso. No, part of what we admire about the beauty they create is that behind their abilities that amaze and electrify us are hours in hidden places doing the same thing over and over till their habits turned into instinct – something that appears to be effortless.A well-lived life is a beautiful thing. But more than that the Bible says it will be a blessing to you and to everyone around you. Every life of moral beauty that we see is developed the way a great artist is developed – knowing the goal and practicing the habits it takes to get there. Lent is a great time for you to either discover Godly habits or begin them again! Freedom and joy unspeakable are around the corner – death before resurrection. If you need help in this journey, please ask your pastors or Community Group leaders to be your guide. I can think of nothing I pray for more than that God would form us all more into the image of Jesus, and I know when I pray that I am praying for Godly habits among our folk.