I HAVE been thinking about evil and sin this week, mainly in response to the suffering in Ukraine, but also because in the season of lent Christians are encouraged to do a kind of moral health check asking myself how I am fairing in the fight against sin and evil that I promised to do in my baptism.

I find it helpful to have this time of self-reflection but it is a tough job. As much as I want to change the things I do, it is very hard to change who I am on the inside. Stuff leaks out sometimes and spoils things. And that is just me. When I am then faced with such evil as we see in Ukraine, the defeatist in me says, “there is nothing I can do about such evil”. So, not being able to change myself a great deal, and powerless to change the way the world works, I could end up doing nothing and so evil thrives. What should I do, I wonder?

In the Anglican confirmation service, candidates are asked, “will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”

In that question lies the answer to my question - resist in response to evil and repent in response to sin. Just to clarify: sin really means missing the mark, not following the law that God has given so that we might have life to the full; repent means to turn or to change one’s mind and actions - start hitting the mark more often because we have turned away from sin and turned towards God.

I believe we cannot resist evil properly without repenting. If I try to resist evil in my own strength, I am almost certainly bound to fail and sin myself – miss the mark and just add to the problem. I need to turn to God, not to hide, but to be cleansed, refreshed and strengthened. Lent then isn’t just a time of self-improvement, it is an opportunity to look into the face of God, to find in him his love for us, his forgiveness, his healing, his direction, his strength. Then resisting evil, by taking what he gives us out into the world and being an active force for good.

By the way, the answer to the confirmation question is always “with the help of God, I will.”