Ash Wednesday

When I moved to San Antonio, I knew nothing of Lent. I was brought up Baptist, and we didn’t do Lent. I knew it was something that Catholics did and that it involved giving something up for a period of time. But that’s all I knew. My first Ash Wednesday came shortly after we arrived in town. I saw someone with a smudge on her forehead.

“Excuse me,” I said, “But you have something on your forehead.”

She smiled and said, “It’s ashes.”

I thought that was an odd answer. So I said, “Well, ashes or dirt or whatever. I was just letting you know.”

Things have changed over the last 20 years, and now my Baptist church observes the season of Lent along with most of Christendom. It is a season of mourning, a season of remembering our weak humanity, and a season of entering the desert with Jesus for 40 where we hope to hear from the Spirit of God. A number of our bloggers have posted Ash Wednesday or Lenten essays today. I hope their writing blesses you.

————————————Gordon Atkinson (Real Live Preacher)

Godspace
Portrait of a Writer, Interuppted
It Takes a Church
Novus Lumen
The Suburban Christian