The following post came from Scot McKnight’s great blog…

Jeff Cook, author of Seven: The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes , has offered some brief meditations for us to ponder during Lent this year. Continue reading →

I’ve never attended an Ash Wednesday service.

However, if I did, I wouldn’t sit idly when the procession toward the front began.  I might feel weird, but I would definitely join in.  I would let the priest use his ash-coated finger to trace the cross on my forehead.  And I would walk through my day marked with it.  I’d let it smudge and fade until my evening shower finished it off.

And the point would be?

It would be found in the words almost certainly spoken by the ash-writer as the cross took its place on my forehead: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.”  The heart of Lent is seen in dust and ashes–that we are creaturely mortal and morally culpable.  Finite and sinful, destined to die.  And the blending of my dust-skin with those dust-ashes would drive home a point…

If I am to live, it will only be through the eternal God’s redemption of my fading self.  A realization like that drives one quite naturally to humility and repentance.

And at that point, one has arrived squarely at the season of Lent.

I’ve been looking for something to blog about.  Through the course of a day, I’ll have several encounters that make me think, “I should write about this.”  I never get to my keyboard with a clear head.  Other days, nothing “blog-worthy” (whatever that ridiculous term even means) seems to cross my path.  Stolen quotes and pasted Youtube videos aren’t exactly what I was aiming for, for the bulk of this cyber-spot.

I’ve also been looking for something to do.  My routine is feeling the need of a shake-up, and a scan of my day-timer recently informed my ignorant self that Ash Wednesday was nearly here.  And now it is.  I confess that at this moment, I don’t have a clear plan waiting to be executed.  I wish I did.  Despite this shortfall, I find my attention drawn to the upcoming Lent season.  Being a newbie to the practice, I intend to borrow from others’ reflections and resources to guide me through this period.  Anything that benefits me will be posted here.

A simple prayer from Scot McKnight seemed a good place to start:

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.