A neighbor called needing a ride to a doctor’s office.

Unfortunately the call came when one child was hitting the other, the teapot was whistling as I was trying to get breakfast on, and I was rushing to plug a leak that had developed from the ice dam above the guest bathroom - all in the 15 minutes before we hurried off to school. 

In other words it was not a good time to talk with someone in need. 

Unfortunately I wasn't as kind or helpful on the phone as I would have hoped I would have been. Instead of responding with kindness and assurance (in my seasoned pastor’s voice) I was rather short and curt. So after things had settled down I called my neighbor back, but by that time another ride had been arranged.

Certainly life’s overwhelmings get to all of us, but I can’t help thinking that had I exercised a bit more self control things would have turned out a bit differently.

It’s incidents like this that have me looking forward to Lent.

It’s the one time of year we’re asked to participate in small exercises of self restraint.

And we know that small doses of self control can improve our overall self control.

Time and again researchers confirm our suspicions that self control is like a muscle that can be trained and strengthened. When we beg off things we want, be they donuts or department store sales, we contribute to strengthening our ability to restrain and control in larger arenas. Refrain from demonizing opponents instead of really trying to understand them; Refrain from assuming impure motives instead of better ones; refrain from sending that flaming email we probably would not have sent had we summoned the strength to wait until morning.

In other words, we need Lent now more than ever.

May our humble exercises of Lenten discipline - no matter how big or small - give birth to greater strength and stamina that we might more completely live into our vocations as reconcilers of the world to Christ.