Many Christians will attend worship tomorrow for Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. Some will receive ashes on their forehead and hear the immortal words from Genesis 3, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
This is a time to reflect on our current state. We are mortal…we are sinful…we are proud…and hopefully, amidst the ashes and darkness, we can hear another word – we are forgiven. I can speculate on some things, and one thing I believe is that many people today, looking at Christianity from the outside, get it wrong. Why? Well, perhaps because our loudest and most energetic words have to do with morality. Instead of hearing Good News in Christ we communicate self-righteousness.
Philip Yancey once said: "The only difference that I can tell between Christians and non-Christians is not necessarily morality; it’s that Christians have acknowledged that we’re sinners and we can’t make it on our own." Ash Wednesday reminds us that we can’t make it on our own. God has provided us a way, through our Lord Jesus Christ to be righteous in Him…not because of our own efforts.
Picture number one is my to labs doing what they do best, relaxing in the sun. Picture two was taken recently...I had just finished refinishing the hardwood floors in our front room, left for a moment and returned to see Cleo calmly basking in the sun. I believe this was her stamp of approval on my work (this is about as much praise you will ever get from a cat). These pictures remind me of how the light of Christ breaks the darkness of the human stain. On Ash Wednesday we stand before God with no illusions about our perfection or self-sufficiency. But hear the Good News…God doesn’t expect us to be. His light, the light of Christ is proof of that.
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