“I am sinking in deep mud, and there is no solid ground” (Psalm 60:2a, Good News Bible). I know exactly the sensation of sinking in mud. At Christmastime one year I was walking around my apartment complex looking at the light displays. I couldn’t quite see where I was going when I stepped in some mud. No problem. I’ll just take another step. Squish! More mud. Another step. Water over my ankles. Anyone with an ounce of sense would turn back. Not me. A few more steps and I was up to my knees in water. I had walked into a retention pond.

I survived, but that incident has remained with me as a parable of my life. So many times I have gotten into a mess, knew it, but plunged ahead rather than going back and doing something different. I lack what the Greeks called metanoia, a change of heart, or translated into English, repentance.

Lent is a time for repentance. That’s sadly interpreted as meaning looking downcast and feeling sorry. No, it’s about changing things in life. Stop doing things that harm yourself and other and set a new course.

It’s true that God loves us the way we are. That’s grace. But we are loved so much that God doesn’t want us to stay the way we are if that is destructive. Think of Lent as a time for renewing life, for improving spiritual, mental and physical health–a spa treatment for the soul.

With Christ’s help turn around and stop walking into the mud.

Read Acts 3:19-20 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne