Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday. No trumpets blow. Still we show up. Some try to hide their ashes. Sometimes the smudge stays while we’re at work. The journey of Lent has begun. We’re only human. At the end of most days, we are frayed and coming apart. God is patient. “Even now… return to me with your whole heart.” We who want to see results. We who want to know just where we’re going. We already have arrived. Just show up with our self. But what’s it all about? Are we called to stand before our Maker with all our faults in full view? We know we have been hiding. Now we are found out. It’s time to face the consequences. Befuddled is where we live. Once Christians set out on pilgrimages and made regular retreats. In Lent, the desert comes searching for us. Beyond the din arises the emptiness. It takes a certain kind of time to listen. In Lent we are called into the presence behind the words to realize how we are not alone. Living breaks us down into pieces. We come back together again in different ways. Sometimes it is in the square where people cry out for justice and the cry is heard around the world. Sometimes it is the desert where the words of love are heard again. |