Ash Wednesday

Today marks the beginning of Lent, 40 days until Easter, where we celebrate our risen Lord. Growing up I knew this day as Ash Wednesday. This meant a mad dash to church to get ashes put on our foreheads. I remember always disliking the ashes as they fell into my eyes (every time). And then walking around at school where my friends thought it so weird that I had this black stuff on my head. I thought it weird too, I didn't know any better. Today though Ash Wednesday has a whole new meaning. It has been over 20 years since I have been to an Ash Wednesday service. Not being a part of the Catholic church anymore I have not practiced this tradition in a very long time.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent which marks 40 days (not including Sundays which makes it 46 days) before Easter. It is a day that marked for the remembrance of repentance and is a movable fast (movable because it is dependent on the date of Easter that year) it is a call to "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel". This year our church Newport Mesa Church is having an Ash Wednesday service. JM went to the early one and said it was awesome. He was disappointment at all the remarks he got from his work where people just thought he had dirt on his head and did not know it was Ash Wednesday. I was brought back to my childhood and feeling like an outsider as I walked with the ashes on my head. I can only recall a few times that I rubbed the ashes off my head. The other times I wore them all day for fear that God would strike down for taking them off. I love much of the traditional church and the meaning for the practices. Growing up though I did not know Christ's salvation and only feared God, making it difficult to understand the traditions.

Today I am excited to go to the Ash Wednesday service, to hear what my pastor has to say, to worship and to have the ashes once again be put on my forehead as a remembrance of my repentance and my salvation.

May the Lord bless you and keep you and may He make His face to shine upon you!