Ashes to Ashes

It seems strange that Lent is upon us and Ash Wednesday is already in our rear view mirror! Frankly,  I am still rejoicing over the Christ child being born, and my spirit has yet to move from seeing Christ for who he really is during the season of Epiphany.  But that is how the Christian calendar moves...and the season of Lent is here -- whether we think we are ready or not. 

So, what is Lent exactly?  What does the minister mean when he/she uses some ashes to make the cross of Christ on our forehead while saying the odd phrase, "From dust you came and from dust you will return." 

Growing up in San Antonio, we did not have many winter occasions that called for a night by the fireplace.  We had a fireplace, but it rarely got used...it was mainly for decoration.  For us, winter meant that we transitioned from wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirts into wearing jeans with our short-sleeve shirts. A cold "winter" night for us was anything under 45 degrees...if that happened, we had to break out the electric heated blankets, crank up the heat and start a fire.

 However, I do remember a few legitimate "winter" nights where at least a fire was needed...in fact, one particular winter we used the fire-place four or five consecutive nights.  I recall being surprised by the amount of ash that piled up after only a few nights of having a fire.

 It was my job to clean the ashes from the fireplace...I had never done that before (remember...this is South Texas).  So, I followed the instructions my parents gave me and began to shovel up the ashes and dump them in a paper bag. Unfortunately, I accidentally tipped the bag over and all the ashes I had collected rose in a cloud of smoke, danced in the air for a bit  and then landed softly all over the living room. I remember being stunned at how completely the ashes seemed to cover the entirety of the living room.  They rose together in a cloud, paused briefly and fell, landing independently, but in perfect form all over the room.  Needless to say, the vacuum cleaner was full of ashes that day.

In a spiritual sense, our sinful ash is all over us.  That is the primary purpose of Lent...to   remember that our dusty sin is ingrained in our hearts, souls and our very being.  We too often believe the lie that our dust doesn’t contaminate every facet of our lives, and Lent asks us to remember our dust. The dust dirties our lives with broken relationships, unfulfilled promises and hurt hearts.

Lent also asks us to live openly with our ash.  Elizabeth Evans notes, "Lent is an invitation to live honestly with our dust -- to not spend all our energy trying to hide it, but to acknowledge the dust in our homes for this season and see what we can learn."  

 Lent asks us to understand that we are not as in control of the dusty ash as we think we are, instead it asks us to give up control to the only person who can clean up our dusty mess -- Christ.

Perhaps you are not into "giving something up" for Lent or you are tired of the preacher trying to guilt you into a better life during this special season.  If that is the case, why don't you try practicing Lent by remembering your dust, living honestly with it and asking God to help you clean it up?