The season of Lent offers us a time to sweep away all that once kept our relationship with God being as transparent as it could. We have the opportunity to have to clear away and take inventory so that we are prepared for the new.
What happens? Exactly what you think would happen: people stop being polite and start getting real. So where does that leave us as followers of Jesus today? Maybe that from which we most want to turn away deserves our focus, at least briefly?
We cannot continue to follow the directions that we desire without regard to others. We must re-orient ourselves and re-focus our lives to be in closer relationship with God and neighbor.
Lent is the time of "covenant review", raising the question of how each party has kept their end of the promise. Has God upheld God's end of the promise to always love us and be with us? Have we kept our end of the promise to follow and serve?