Lent is an occasion for self-examination. The purpose of self-examination isn't to beat yourself over the head with how bad you are, but to come to know yourself more deeply, and in so doing come to know God and his grace more intimately.

"To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks," wrote Flannery O'Connor. “It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around.” She goes on to say that the “first product of self-knowledge is humility." Put simply, humility is both the source and outcome of self-knowledge. To know ourselves, we need something outside of ourselves. We need transcendence, we need Truth, and we need to humble ourselves before that Truth—accepting what it says about us.

In Lent, a set "examen" is helpful, in that it forces us to bring an objective standard to bear upon our journey of self-knowledge. This Lent, I've been reflecting each morning upon 22 questions the great Anglican evangelist, John Wesley, asked himself each day. I'd love to invite you to do the same exercise with me. Below are those questions, which I pray might be helpful to your Lenten piety:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass on to others what has been said to me in confidence?

4. Can I be trusted?

5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?

6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

7. Did the Bible live in me today?

8. Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?

9. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?

17. How do I spend my spare time?

18. Am I proud?

19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?

20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?

21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?

22. Is Christ real to me?