All Paczki; No Ash

All Paczki; No Ash

It was interesting to me that Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday both shared the same day this past week. It seems that valentines won out over ashes. But more importantly is the distinction between “Fat Tuesday” and Ash Wednesday. I don’t think that there is any doubt that there were many, many more people with paczki in their  bellies than ash on their foreheads. 

Why is it that we think we can choose one and just ignore the other? Paczki may be a Polish expression of the approaching Lenten season, but it clearly has a religious connection, as does Ash Wednesday. Can you really just take one without the other? The only way to do so is to entirely remove the religious element.

Here’s another example: heaven, and hell. Many more people talk about heaven than hell. Many more people believe in heaven than hell. But can you have one without the other? If heaven is the place/state of God’s eternal favor, isn’t there then a place/state of God’s eternal disfavor? The Bible is pretty clear about this.

Biblically, this ties in to the distinction between the divine verdicts of condemnation or justification. We are not talking about self-condemnation or self-justification. This is about having a broken relationship with God or a restored relationship with God. It is something that God fixes for us through Christ, thus, justified, or that He doesn’t, thus condemned. Yes, we have a decisive part in this, but God is the Judge, not you, and if you are not one, you are the other, either condemned, or justified. There is no middle ground. 

Ignoring the issue is not a strategy. It is an option, but a foolish one, as if one approaches a debt problem as if it will work itself out all by itself. To drift through life with a broken relationship with God, thinking that it will fix itself, is the height of foolishness. We get frustrated with people when they do not address their foolish financial practices or miserable health habits, but scarcely think about the masses who fail to address a broken relationship with their Creator and their eternal destiny. 

I wonder if faith and repentance are just a little like paczki and ashes. A lot of people talk about faith in rather doughy terms, but have no category for repentance, the practice of addressing wrongs wherein we agree with God about His standards of right and wrong and seriously admit our failings. But can you have one without the other? True faith in God is only possible when we look to God rather than ourselves because we finally admit that we are broken and damaged people. Justification (a right relationship with God) is only possible when we reach out to Christ due a solemn conviction that we are under condemnation without Him. Heaven is our hope only when we understand that Hell is our deserved destiny as those who stand under condemnation and that our so-called faith has been mostly just talk. 

Regret over the paczek (singular) or paczki (plural) you consumed on Tuesday doesn’t get you to Wednesday, does it? It goes deeper than that. One must seriously consider not just one’s own appetites and feelings, and consider what God has to say about these things.