As I record this we’re at roughly the half-way point in Great Lent, where some of the disciplines of the season can begin to feel a bit wearying. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk reminds us why we discipline ourselves like this now:

Beloved Christians! We are created not for temporal but for eternal life. We are renewed unto eternal life through holy Baptism. We are called to eternal life by the word of God. Christ the Son of God came into the world, suffered and died for the sake of our eternal life. Do you see how dear God held our eternal salvation? He created everything for the sake of it, and for the sake of it He Himself came into the world. Our foremost care and labor, then, should be for this.