To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

—Luke 18:9-14 (TNIV)

As we enter the season of Lent today, we should enter it in the spirit of the tax collector in today’s lesson. It is our haughty pride and arrogance that has caused us to be separated and alienated from God, and this separation can only lead to our death. This Lent, have the courage to be brutally honest in your self-reflection. Consider how grievous your sin is to God, not unlike the way you feel when someone you love does you a terrible wrong. Ask God to help you identify and root out that which is in you that is holding you back and preventing you from growing in your relationship with him. Then be courageous and trusting enough to enter into the needed discipline or relationships to help God accomplish his healing in you. He loves you and wants to have a life-giving relationship with you. He wants you to live with him forever. Doing so, however, requires that we acknowledge God to be God and to act accordingly. When we are able to do this, it is a wonderfully freeing thing. May the Lord bless and keep you during this Lenten season, and help transform you into his very image.