Ash Wednesday

...this day isn't about ashes on foreheads, but personal stands against evil and a brave determination to live differently. —Tom Ehrich

Most of us know that on some level... that it isn't about the outward symbol we walk around town with today. When I was growing up, the only people who had smudges on their foreheads were my Catholic neighbors. (We must not have had any Episcopal neighbors.) And yes, I thought they were showing off.

This morning our celebrant had some excellent words about what Ash Wednesday is about: First of all, she said, it's about our mortality. We will die. Secondly, it's about sin. It's the day to get honest with ourselves about our motives, our secret agendas, our own very real hypocrisy in the face of what we profess to believe. But more important it's about our dependence on God... on this God whose breath created us, and whose heart allows us to turn back, to repent and start over.

So... today we confess not just our sins, but our dependence on God. We are dust. Yet God hates nothing that has been created... not even the dust.