Christian Cheat Codes: Lenten Reflections 2026

"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." —John 8:32 NLT

TLDR: Scroll to the bottom for the cheat codes!

2026.2.28. This week, we celebrated the 107th anniversary of the March 1 Movement for Korean independence from Japanese colonization. Here I am at Dongnimmun 독립문 "Independence Gate," built in 1897 as a symbol of the Korean people's will to protect Korea's sovereignty in the face of encroaching foreign powers. To freedom—spiritually, physically, psychologically, and politically!

Lent has begun, and boy, has it begun.

Lent is a time when we join Jesus in the wilderness for forty days to face, contend with, and ultimately, confess our deepest selves in order to find freedom in the truth. The simple truth that we, as dust, are nothing and will return to nothing (our insignificance), as well as the truth that we are precious children of God, God who knows the number of hairs on our head and keeps all our tears in a bottle (our significance) (Genesis 3:19, Matthew 10:30, Psalm 56:8).

It has only been a week and a half since Lent began, and I have already had so many realizations.

I realized that, for the longest time, I subconsciously thought that the more mature and loving I became, the more God would love and approve of me. It's a difficult balance to walk the straight and narrow path of a Christian, trying to grow in one's faith without it becoming a test or competition and becoming harsh with oneself and one's neighbors (grace is needed here) and also avoiding indulgence, where one stops trying to grow because it is uncomfortable (discipleship is needed here). But I return to the life of Jesus, who came as an infant and died on the cross. I am not a parent yet, but I imagine that a parent feels the most love for their child the moment they are born. How could it be possible to love your child any more than you do in those first moments? I'm sure God felt this way about Jesus—He didn't love Jesus only when he died on the cross. Then, when Jesus gets baptized, God says, "This is my son, my beloved, with whom I am well-pleased." God still loves and adores Jesus 30 years later before Jesus has completed a single day of ministry. And of course, we know God loves Jesus throughout all of his years of ministry to his death and resurrection. Jesus was always growing and learning throughout those 33 years. And God loved Jesus the whole time, during that whole process of growing up.

I often feel ashamed at how immature and sinful I still am and want to hide from God because I feel that I have disappointed him. But I realize that God's love is both unconditional and unchanging. In the same way God loved Jesus, God loved me when I was a child, as I was growing up, and still loves me now in the same way. Just as a parent wants their child to grow into a healthy adult, God also wants me to grow and mature. At the same time, God accepts me as I am right now. Both of these sentiments are expressions of God's love. God's love cannot be earned, it can only be accepted. Even in our sin, our immaturity, our selfishness, God still loves us. We must continually practice accepting God's unconditional love. For our sin comes from looking for help in the wrong places. We need to come to God first when we need something, like self-esteem or comfort. But instead, we try to get those things in unhealthy ways that often hurt our neighbors and ourselves. It can be incredibly difficult to believe that God's love is infinite and that no sin or pain or problem of ours is too big for God when we have never experienced that kind of love before. But this is where faith comes in as well as our faith communities who help us to practice experiencing and believing in this kind of love. All that to say is that I experienced such good news this week: God loves and accepts our weakest and lowest selves. All we have to do is be honest about where we are at so that God can meet us there and give us the help we need. But God cannot help us if we don't ask for help or deny that we need it. We must show God our boo-boos so God can kiss them! This is what confessing our sins is truly about.

So, now we know that the nature of God's love is unconditional and unchanging, which enables us to confess our sins readily without fear of rejection, secure in our relationship with God. But what is love itself and how do we do it? The following is a piece I wrote a week ago reflecting on my relationship with love.

"Love is a verb."

challenges us to move from abstract sentiment to concrete

action

action

action

always in motion, always doing

cleaning, serving, smiling, gifting,

cheering, comforting, soothing, holding,

cooking, hosting, fixing, nursing,

giving, giving, giving

but when I read 1 Corinthians, I see how mistaken I am.

"Love is patient."

This is not an action.

This is a non-action.

How do I do a non-action?

I must stop.

Not pause—not temporarily—I must stop completely.

I must stop trying to "love" long enough to realize that the love I am trying so hard to generate already surrounds me in abundance.

I must stay still long enough to let this love absorb into me—this total, unconditional love that lets me know that I am loved and cherished just as I am, no action, no reciprocation required.

Acceptance is the beginning of love, not giving.

Giving is the fruit of love, but acceptance is the root.

Finally, at 27, I am ready to stop chasing love and let is wash over me instead.

Looking within, my quest is over.

Love is here, now and forever.

I realize that I am a tree that will grow to provide shade and shelter without even trying—simply by being who I am.

And suddenly, all at once, I am free.

My Instagram bio says "Breathe. Be. Bless." It means, "Pause, breathe in God's love, let it nourish you, and breathe out this same love in blessing to your neighbors." It's been my bio for at least a year, but I'm ready to embody it in a new way now. Growth happens in cycles, and I'm grateful to be in another cycle of growth, letting God's wisdom sink in even more deeply this time. I look forward to not trying and not forcing and not manipulating or controlling or performing. I look forward to stillness, silence, slowness, and steadiness. I look forward to opening my arms in trust and surrender to the flow of the Holy Spirit. I look forward to opening each pore of my body, one by one, to receive God's love.

I am following a Bonhoeffer devotional this Lent, and the following passage from Day 5 "Truth and Freedom" really reinforced and added to my reflections on sin, confession, and love. It is an excerpt from his sermon "The Truth Will Set You Free," which he preached in Berlin on July 24, 1932.

"자유롭게 된다는 것은 세상에서 위대해지는 것을 뜻하지 않습니다. 형제를 대적하고 하나님을 거스르면서 자유로워지는 것이 아니라 자기 자신으로부터 자유로워지는 것입니다. 세상에서 자신이 최고이고, 세상에 자기 혼자만 있는 것처럼 생각하며, 자신이 세상의 중심인 것처럼 여기는 거짓으로부터 자유로워지는 것입니다. 그리하여 하나님의 피조물을 경시하는 미움에서 벗어나며, 자신으로부터 자유로워져 타인을 위해 살게 되는 것입니다.

하나님의 진리만이 우리로 하여금 타인을 볼 수 있게 합니다. 하나님의 진리는 우리 자신에게 고정된 눈을 들어 타인을 보게 합니다. 나의 눈을 들어 타인을 보게 함으로써, 진리는 나에게 하나님의 사랑과 은혜를 행하는 것입니다. 하나님의 진리는 미움을 멸하고 사랑을 창조합니다. 하나님의 진리는 하나님의 사랑이며, 하나님의 사랑은 우리로 하여금 자신으로부터 자유로워져 타인을 위해 살게 합니다. 자유롭다는 것은 사랑 안에 거하는 것이며, 사랑 안에 거하는 것은 하나님의 진리 안에 거하는 것입니다."

"It is not something that we have to do, not our courage, our church, our people, our truth; but God’s truth alone that makes us free.  Why?  Because to become free does not mean becoming great in the world, not becoming free from your brother, nor even free from God, but to become free from oneself, one’s lie.  It means to become free from thinking only of myself, from being the center of my world, from hate, by which I despise God’s creation.  It means to be free to be for the other: the person for others.  Only God’s truth can enable me to see the other as he really is.  It tears out the twisted image that I have of the other within me and shows him to me in a new light.  And insofar as God’s truth does that, it bestows upon me the action, the love, the grace of God.  It destroys our lies and creates the truth.  It destroys hatred and creates love.  God’s truth is God’s love and God’s love makes us free from ourselves for others.  To be free means nothing less than to be in love.  And to be in love means nothing less than being in the truth of God."

I am reading the devotional in Korean, but I found this English translation online. The website features a longer excerpt from the sermon than what's in my devotional book, and it's definitely worth a read.

So powerful, so compelling!

To sum up:

being human = experiencing the whole spectrum of emotions, including pain and suffering

faith = knowing that God cares about our pain and suffering

confession = 1) sharing our pain and suffering with God; 2) apologizing for the ways we have sinned

sin = inflicting our pain and suffering onto other people instead of taking it to God

love = acceptance of oneself and others as God's beloved creation. I am no better or worse than anyone else—we are all surrounded in God's embrace of infinite love. From this acceptance and belief naturally spring acts of Christlike, unconditional love.

church = a community that helps us practice love

May the truth set you free!