"Ash Wednesday"

Today is “Ash Wednesday”, and we will once again hear the call to repentance and reflection as the Lenten season begins.  It is a day like no other for it asks us to find a place of “aloneness” even though there are fellow worshipers surrounding us.  We place our broken and contrite hearts before God, hoping in a way that no one else will witness this.  We confess our sins in intentional and specific ways, from deep within, perhaps praying as well that no one will sense these things pouring from our hearts.  We admit that there is absolutely nothing that we can do on our own to “create” a pure heart or to “renew” a steadfast spirit within us.  Only the Creator can create and only the One who holds mercy in the palms of holy hands can renew a right spirit within us.  And so we bow down. We open up our broken and contrite heart and place it before God.  We speak those words of repentance that God asks of us (yet knew all along).  We humbly (and joyfully) receive a newly-created heart and renewed right spirit.   We become fit for the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus as we pray in earnest for a new sense of faithfulness and obedience and for the Holy Spirit to be ever-present in our lives.  We must become fit and recreated and renewed for we will next hear words of “follow me” and “take up my cross daily.”

In our worship services on this Ash Wednesday, we will be plunged into this “aloneness” and then asked to stand with others and come forward to receive the ashes.  We will feel the sensation of a cross being drawn on our forehead (and secretly pray that we will never lose that feeling).  And we will walk away in silence, wearing the symbol of the cross for all to see.

Dusty, dirty, and sooty….broken and contrite…our hearts were just that. Mercies showered upon each of us.  Forgiveness given.  Hearts being renewed and recreated.  God is preparing us to resolutely set our sights on Jerusalem with Jesus ... preparing us to stand firm and be ready to say “yes, I will follow you.”