Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10
It's time, my
sister, my brother. It is time to receive the ashen etching that traces again
the oily mark imposed on our brows at baptism. It's time to embark on the
transforming trek of Lent.
The journey
begins with a smudge on the brow that reminds us who and whose we are: We are
broken, battered mortals groping for the God to whom we already belong. We are
fragile, failing, fearful creatures, crafted from dust and returning to dust.
And...we belong to God. We frail beings belong, ever and always, to the God who
does not stand far off, but rather walks alongside us, covered in the very dust
and dirt of our days.
Reminded, we
repent. After all, our fear, our frailties, our failings move us to act like
the world exists for our benefit alone. We use it, and the people in it, in ill-fated
attempts to get what we want, what we have convinced ourselves we are due. We
turn every which way but the life-giving way of the cross of Christ. Along this
journey we repent, we turn again toward the only one who can offer real and
abundant life. We fast, we pray, we turn our faces, our hearts and our open
hands toward the world that God so loves, the world in which Jesus crucified
and risen is getting his hands dirty and his feet dusty.
Along the way,
renewal rises as a gift from the dust and ashes of our lives. We broken, battered
mortals are forgiven, healed, made new by the God who gropes through the dust
to make and remake us into who and what we are created and called to be:
children of God and brothers and sisters with all of God's dust-born children.
That's it. That's the journey...not just this holy season but every season, every day...reminded, repenting, renewed, over and over
again on this Lenten way.
Thankfully, as it turns out, we arrive where we begin - in the heart
of God and one with God's dusted creation.
Create in us clean hearts, O God,
and put a new and steadfast spirit within us.
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