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Tomorrow, February 18, is Ash Wednesday. In many Christian traditions, it marks the beginning of Lent, a season of spiritual preparation leading toward Holy Week and Easter. Some Christians observe Ash Wednesday directly, others do not. But for all believers, this time of year invites reflection, honesty, and a renewed attentiveness to our life with God. I invite you to read more.

Lent is not primarily about rituals or external practices. At its heart, it is about truth. It calls us to slow down and ask who we really are before God, not who we appear to be before others. It invites us to look beneath reputation and examine character, and to step out of the shadows and into the light.

With that in mind, I have been reflecting this week on the difference between reputation and character, and why only one of them lasts into eternity.

Jesus said:

“And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” (John 3:19–21)

These words remind us that each of us lives with two versions of ourselves: the person others think we are, and the person God knows us to be. One is reputation. The other is character. One is public. The other is intimate. One depends on opinions. The other depends on grace.

Reputation is fragile. It can be strengthened by praise or wounded by criticism. It often becomes a mask, hiding our interior struggles. Because we fear disappointing others, we sometimes polish the outside of our life while ignoring the deeper places where we are wounded or spiritually stuck. Character, however, is who we are before God when no one else is watching.

I know this all too well. I spent much of my life tending carefully to my public reputation while inwardly knowing my wounds and character defects all too well. Then, in His mercy, God invited me to bring my brokenness into the light. It was not easy, but doing so changed everything. From that moment of honesty and surrender, this ministry was born. And it is because of that invitation that I now work so hard to encourage others to bring their wounds, their sins, and their hidden struggles into the light so real healing can begin.

If we are honest, we all feel the pull of the darkness Jesus describes. We hesitate to step fully into the light because doing so exposes what we would rather keep buried. We resist not from lack of love for God, but from fear of what truth demands. Yet Jesus tells us that those who live the truth come into the light. Only the light can heal and transform us.

This journey into the light is not only about discipleship. It is also about eternity. One day, every one of us will be fully known. Every sin, wound, and failure, everything we once tried to hide, will be visible in the blazing joy of God’s love. That idea frightens us now only because pride still clings to us. Pride fears exposure. Pride wants to protect reputation at all costs.

But in heaven, pride does not exist. There, to be fully known brings freedom. Every sin is known only in light of the mercy that healed it. Every weakness is known only as the place where Christ carried us. Every wound becomes a testimony to His grace. To be fully known in heaven means that we will have fully surrendered ourselves into the hands of Jesus.

So, when we bring our true selves into the light of Christ now, we are not losing anything. We are practicing for heaven. The more we surrender now, the less we will fear being known forever.

Reputation ends at the grave. Character enters eternity. When we stand before God, we will not carry the opinions others held about us. We will carry who we became through grace, humility, and surrender. If we tend to our interior life, reputation will take care of itself. But if we tend only to reputation, our inner life slowly withers in the shadows.

As this season of preparation begins, Christ calls us out of the shadows and into His light, not to shame us, but to free us, not to expose us, but to heal us. When we value character above reputation and truth above appearances, our lives become authentic. Others can sense when a person is rooted in Christ rather than in image.

During this season of Lent, let us pray for the courage to step more fully into the light of Jesus. Perhaps we can begin by opening our hearts to a trusted friend about the struggles we carry or the wounds we keep hidden inside. Let us surrender all of ourselves to Him, without fear or hesitation. And may we long for the freedom of heaven, where being fully known will be our joy because it will mean being fully healed by the One who loves us.

Heavenly Father, as I reflect on the words spoken on Ash Wednesday, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” help me to always remember that this life is fleeting and this time with You is precious. Do not let me delay tending to my interior life. Give me courage to surrender what is hidden, to love honestly, and to walk more fully in Your light today, trusting in Your mercy and grace. Amen.

AMDG 

AMDG is a Latin abbreviation for “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam,” which means “For the Greater Glory of God.”

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If you are in the vicinity, please join us on March 14th at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church for a LENTEN RETREAT. Click the link for more details. 

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Brian Pusateri

Brian is a Christian author and speaker. Brian, a lifelong Catholic, felt his life was forever changed when God spoke to his heart while attending an eight day silent Christian retreat in November of 2011. Soon after that retreat Brian founded 4th Day Letters and Broken Door Ministries. With the God inspired message of mercy and unconditional love that was placed on his heart during that retreat, Brian has been impacting others all over the country and around the world with his weekly letters, his talks, and his all day Christian retreats. In June of 2014, Brian’s life was again impacted in a very dramatic way when his eyesight suddenly became permanently impaired. The initial diagnosis was Multiple Scleroses (MS) but in December of 2019 the diagnosis was corrected to MOG antibody disease, a rare neurological disease. This health challenge has only served to draw Brian closer to God and bolster the importance of this timely yet ageless message.

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