Lent begins tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. The day before that (today) has long been called Shrove Tuesday. 

The name comes from a practice in England to “shrive” on this day—meaning confessing our sins and seeking God’s forgiveness.

Since many people fast during Lent, there was (and is) a custom of using up fatty foods on this day to get them out of the house before Lent starts. Best to start with a clean slate and fewer temptations on hand, right? Hence, pancake time! 

As always, the risk is that we do outward things while neglecting inward things.

Writing in the 1300’s, Henry Suso said that multitudes of people put on “spiritual disguises… in the vain pursuit of transitory things.” In so doing they “drive [God] out of their souls.”*

Let’s avoid spiritual disguises. Let’s avoid vain pursuits at the expense of eternal ones. 

No more pretending. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

It begins within.

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Notes:

–Sermon: “What does it mean to be born again?” February 27, 2022.

–*Henry Suso, Little Book of Eternal Wisdom (Benediction Classis, 2009), 44.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.