A Weekly Update from Pastor Rhea

Every year, when Lent rolls around, we start thinking about what to give up. Chocolate is a classic. Coffee, if you're feeling especially bold. Social media, if you're feeling especially honest. But somewhere along the way, I've started to wonder if the most meaningful Lenten practices aren't always the most obvious ones. What if we gave up being right? Now, I don't mean abandoning truth or pretending that right and wrong don't matter. But I do mean that subtle, persistent urge we all carry – the need to be correct, to get the last word in. The satisfaction of proving, just one more time, that we are, in fact, right. It shows up in small ways. A conversation at the dinner table. A disagreement in a meeting. A moment when someone says something that is almost right – but not quite – and we just can't let it go. And often, by the time we've finished explaining why we're right, we've missed something more important: the person in front of us. Lent invites us into reflection, into honesty, into the kind of self-examination that can be uncomfortable but also deeply freeing. It reminds us that repentance isn't just about the big, obvious things. Sometimes it's about the habits we've grown so used to that we hardly notice them anymore. That might look like listening a little longer than is comfortable. Letting someone speak without interruption. Choosing not to correct a detail that doesn't really matter. Allowing someone else to have the last word – and discovering that the world does not, in fact, fall apart when we do. There's even a kind of lightness in it. A quiet freedom. It turns out that carrying the burden of always being right is heavier than we realized. So this Lent, you might still give up chocolate. Or coffee. Or whatever. But you might also try this: the next time you feel that familiar urge to jump in, to fix, to correct – don't. You may find that what you're giving up isn't truth, but something much smaller – and much more stubborn: the need to be right. And what you make room for instead is grace.