Keeping a Holy Lent: Day 1

Ashes to ashes,

dust to dust.

From dust you were made,

and to dust you shall return.

Lent is a discipline I have only recently learned to practice.

I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, with a Southern Baptist family, and Southern Baptist friends.  Anything that would have involved a liturgical calendar or a marked cross would have been seen as "Catholic" and therefore, to be avoided (Catholics worship the Saints, we were told).

When I was first introduced to the concept of Liturgical Time, and Lent in particular, I pushed back against it.  I was raised knowing of my mortality, my sinfulness, and my utter dependence on God for the health and security of my soul.  I didn't want to take 6 weeks every year and think about it again.  I was tired of being told I was a sinner, in need of God's grace.  My sinfulness kept me awake at night for years; I had finally cast it off and didn't want to spend time reflecting on it again.

But what I have learned is that sinfulness cannot be cast off once.

It has to be cast off again and again.

Because we sin again and again.

Even today as yet another school shooting becomes a headline, I am reminded that we are but dust.  

Life is so fragile.

This life that we're living - the one where we are in constant relationship with each other - we throw away our chances at holiness every day.

Every day we see another in front of us and we view them as expendable.

As here to meet our own needs.

As a stepping stone to get where we want to go.

As an object of our humor.

As a label.

These fragile creatures, made of nothing more than dust ...?

They're our brothers and sisters.

And we sin against them every day.

So this year, I am taking the time to write about Lent.

I am taking a few minutes each day to spend reflecting on what it means to be dust, destined to return to dust.

I will sit with these ashes.

I will mourn my sinfulness toward these beloved children of God.

I will find myself complicit in systems of injustice.

I will listen more.

I will find new and holy ways to be human in this world.

Because it will not be long until this flesh of mine returns to the Earth.

The day is surely coming soon when I will have no more chances to be God's breath and life in this world.

Lent is hard.

It is sad.

It is brokenness.

Just like this life.

And it should not be ignored.

Will you join me?