Out of Sorts - A Lenten Devotional Week 2

Lent has always been a season of letting go. We often think of letting go in terms of tangible things—chocolate, social media, habits—but the deeper invitation of Lent is to release the invisible things we cling to: certainty, control, and the illusion that faith must always feel settled and secure.
In Chapters 3 and 4 of Out of Sorts, Sarah Bessey names something many of us feel but rarely articulate. She describes how certainty can become a kind of armor. We are taught that strong faith means having firm answers, clear doctrines, and unwavering confidence. Certainty feels safe. It gives us structure. It gives us the comfort of believing we know exactly who God is and how God works. 
But Lent disrupts that comfort.
Lent leads us into the wilderness, just as Jesus was led into the wilderness—not with answers, but with hunger, vulnerability, and trust. The wilderness is a place where certainty falls away. It is a place where we cannot rely on what we think we know, but must rely on God’s presence instead.
Bessey also reflects on her evolving relationship with Scripture. She does not abandon the Bible; she lets go of needing it to function as a rulebook that guarantees clarity and control. Instead, she begins to receive it as a living story—one that invites wrestling, curiosity, and relationship. She discovers that Scripture is not diminished by mystery; it is deepened by it.
This, too, is a Lenten practice.
When we receive ashes on our foreheads, we are reminded of our limits: “Remember you are dust.” These words do not shame us; they free us. They release us from the burden of needing to be certain, needing to be right, needing to hold everything together. They remind us that faith has never been about possessing answers, but about trusting Love.
Letting go of certainty can feel like losing something. But often, it is how we make space to receive something deeper. When our grip loosens, our hands become open. And open hands can receive grace.
Lent invites us to trust that God is not found only in certainty, but also in questions. Not only in clarity, but also in mystery. Not only in what we hold tightly, but in what we are brave enough to release.
In letting go, we do not lose God.
We make room to find God again.