Kenn Elder

Wake Up, Little Sleepy Head!

I have been a member of St. Alban’s Chapel since 2006, and a Chapel staff member since 2017. I came to the Episcopal church from the Baptist church in 1996. Little known fact: I’ve been baptized twice! I love St. Alban’s Chapel, it’s mission, and congregation.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17

Click here to read the appointed scripture for Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent.

Devotional

I think many of us arrive at Lent with the same quiet thought: This is my chance to do a little better. Maybe give something up. Maybe try to pray more. Maybe - I hope - that by Easter I'll feel a little more “put together” spiritually.

But when I hear Jesus say, “I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it,” it makes me wonder if he’s in fact inviting me to look at things a little differently. Jesus isn’t tearing up the old story. He’s completing it.

The commandments were never meant to be just rules to manage behavior. They were always pointing toward something deeper—toward love. Love of God. Love of neighbor. Love of what is true.

And yet, if I’m honest with myself, what gets in the way of that love isn’t usually rebellion. It’s unconsciousness.

Anthony De Mello once said that most of us move through life on autopilot: asleep! We react. We repeat habits. We defend ourselves. We even practice religion… but without always noticing what is really going on inside us. In other words, we’re not fully awake. Lent can be an interruption to that sleep.

Instead of only asking, “What should I give up?”, maybe the better question is, “What do I need to start noticing?” Where has my love grown thin? Where has my faith become routine instead of trusting? Where might God be inviting me to grow, even if I’d rather stay comfortable?

Jesus does not shame what is unfinished in us, He fulfills it. He takes what is incomplete and slowly, patiently draws it toward wholeness.

This season is not simply an invitation to try harder, but to see more clearly—to let Jesus align our lives with the kingdom of heaven.

So maybe Lent isn’t really about giving something up or starting over. Maybe it’s about waking up to the life God is already inviting us into. And perhaps, underneath it all, we might hear God saying something very simple this season: Take on Me.

Prayer

Jesus, awaken my heart. Help me to see clearly, love more freely, and walk more deeply in the life You are fulfilling in me. Amen.