...remember man, you are but dust...

Ash Wednesday...early this year...
it fell here only in 1913, of the last 100...
it means that Easter will be "early" too...
coming on March 23...
almost it's earliest possible date...

but there are still 40 days of Lent,
not to mention the Sundays from now until Easter...
which aren't included in that total...
a period of penitence...
and self-denial...of growth...
culminating in the joyous re-birth of Easter...

leaving the old self behind...
with it's sins... shortcomings...
hopes and dreams...
joys won...and lost...
failures and victories...

Jesus, tempted in the wilderness,
was able to stay true to God...
and His calling...
me...not so much...

so now I enter Lent...
on my knees...
an ashen cross on my forehead...
but covered with the ashes
of all that I have destroyed
in my self-centered frenzies...

knowing that I must relinquish all...
everything I cherish...
to Him...
who gave everything for me...
and, I can do that...

He opened not His mouth...
He raised not His hand...
He did not strike His oppressors...
He forgave His executioners...

if I die to myself...
I can live in Him...
but only then will His will
be done in my life...

there is no last minute rescue God cannot accomplish...
there is no miracle too big for Him...
there is no cry so faint,
that He hasn't heard it before it's uttered...
no heart so broken that He cannot mend it...
better than ever it was...
no sin He won't forgive...

everything happens for a "reason"...
even grief and turmoil are in His plan...
and are used by Him, for our good...
we must trust Him...and have faith...
even through our tears...
"joy cometh in the morning..."

I seek a Holy Lent...
I seek to lose myself, to find myself...
I seek my Lord and God...
I seek His will, perfected in me...
I seek to be the person that
He has always planned for me to be...

"seek and you shall find...
ask and it shall be given you...
knock, and the door will be opened to you..."
[Alleluia, Amen]