If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. [1 John 1:8–2:2]

Along with the season of Lent comes the heightened awareness of personal sin and the practice of repentance. The Lenten journey of coming face-to-face with our sins only to end with gazing at our crucified Savior’s forgiving cross is a hard and beautiful one.

I will turn over this week’s devotional to the time-tested words of The Common Book of Prayer:

“We acknowledge and lament our many sins and offenses, which we have committed by thought, word, and deed against your divine majesty, provoking most justly your righteous anger against us. We are deeply sorry for these our transgressions; the burden of them is more than we can bear.”

Notice the lament for sin:
We acknowledge and lament our many sins and offenses…

Then the depth and breadth of our sin:
…which we have committed by thought, word, and deed…

Then our sorrow:
We are deeply sorry for our transgressions; the burden of them is more than we can bear.

Finally, the assurance of pardon:
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who in His great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins to all those who sincerely repent and with true faith turn to him, have mercy upon you.

Winners of the 2026 Winter Olympics
Medal counts
Denmark, USA, and Italy won the most medals overall.

The men’s hockey team
It has been since 1980 that the US won its last men’s hockey gold medal at the Olympics. On Sunday they ended Canada’s dominance in the sport by beating our northern neighbors 2–1.

Oh, yeah…the American women’s hockey team captured the gold, too! They also beat the Canadians 2–1 in overtime.

The city of Milan
The somewhat overshadowed Italian city (usually eclipsed by Rome and Florence and Venice and…) was on glorious display for the world to see for two weeks! (Oh no. That could mean Milan will be even more crowded with tourists next time Sue and I go there to be in the churches and with the people.)

(The smaller city of Verona [she of Romeo and Juliet fame] did herself proud with the beautiful closing ceremonies Sunday evening.)

They said it (notable Olympian quotes)
“I know what my chances were before the crash, and I know my chances aren’t the same as it stands today, but I know there’s still a chance and as long as there’s a chance, I will try.”
[Lindsey Vonn (who tore her ACL a week before the Olympics—and then fractured her tibia during a crash on her first ski run of the competition. After her crash, she tweeted from the hospital: “I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”)]

“There’s something so unique and beautiful about skating…it’s the best sport. But don’t tell the other sports.”
[Madison Chock, Team USA ice dancer]

“I’m just a girl who loves Jesus and happens to play hockey.”
[Joy Dunne, USA women’s hockey team member]

“I don’t want to be in life without my dad and today was maybe the first time I could actually accept this.”
[Mikaela Shiffrin, Team USA skier and gold medalist, immediately after winning her first Olympic medal since 2018, speaking on her father, who passed away in 2020]

“Eric Liddell said when he ran, he felt God’s pleasure. I feel the same way when I am skating.”
[Anders Johnson, Team Canada speed skater]

“He sent me a very long and well-written email [wishing me good luck]. His text messages are better than my high school and college papers.”
[Birk Irving, Team USA freestyle skier on his grandfather, novelist John Irving]

“All of a sudden, I just started crying, I was reading the book, and it just hit me that Jesus is the way. It was so strong and so powerful… Regardless of whether I win a gold medal or never compete again, I just have to trust that God has a plan for my life, and I’m called to be his representative through the sport and outside of the sport.”
[Elana Meyers Taylor, Team USA bobsledder]

“I wanted them to sit in the kiss and cry with me and experience the moment, look up at the scores. They deserve to be seated right next to me, like they always have been.”
[Maxim Naumov, Team USA figure skater who lost his parents in a plane crash over DC]

A past Olympic “winner”
Check out this lovely ad celebrating the crucial role parents play.

Lenten reminders
Sticktoitiveness! Let Dallas Willard encourage you not to quit as your enthusiasm for your chosen Lent fasts and disciplines possibly wanes:

“The disciplines are activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken, to bring our personality and total being into effective cooperation with the divine order. They enable us more and more to live in a power that is, strictly speaking, beyond us, deriving from the spiritual realm itself, as we ‘yield ourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God,’ as Romans 6:13 puts it.”

More than “giving stuff up,” we are practicing the putting off of the old and putting on the new, that the New Testament so often reminds us of. A brilliant Lenten devotional utilizing the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien occupies my heart and mind each morning.

(For those of you still wanting a meaningful daily devotional, Sue is again reading through Calvin Miller’s Lenten book. This is a beautiful blend of exquisite writing and beautiful artwork. Miller was a deep-thinking pastor with a poet’s flair.)

Lent is truly a season of finding grace and returning to fellowship. As Sinclair Ferguson writes, “Only when we turn away from looking at our own sin to gaze upon the face of God, to find his pardoning grace, do we begin to repent. Only by seeing that there is grace and forgiveness with him would we ever dare to repent and thus return to the fellowship and presence of the Father.”

Our Tuesday Afternoon prayer
“I Cannot Do This Alone”
“O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
And to concentrate my thoughts on you;
I cannot do this alone.
In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways,
But you know the way for me…
Restore me to liberty,
And enable me to live now
That I may answer before you and before men.
Lord, whatever this day may bring,
Your name be praised.
Amen.”
[Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lenten prayer]