We all need a thaw every now and then. Burdened by relentless schedules and hamster-wheel existences, it seems like we’re always moving and rarely in touch with the depth beneath. Stuck in patterns of shame and guilt, we fail to thrive. Numb to our heart’s longings, we live at the frozen surface of life, just surviving.
Ash Wednesday opens us to the possibility that something more is available to us. It invites you to listen to the whisper of God trying to break through all the noise of life saying, “You were made for so much more!” Frederick Buechner puts it this way: Christ’s love sees us with terrible clarity and sees us whole. Christ’s love so wishes our joy that it is ruthless against everything in us that diminishes our joy.
The words of Ash Wednesday may not sound joyful – You are dust and to dust you shall return. But they are an invitation to joy precisely in this regard – they are an invitation back to the goodness of your God-given, God-created, God-redeemed lives.
Chuck DeGroat what is lent