Today followers of the Christ begin the Lenten journey. Instead of packing for the trip, the point is to lose our baggage and all that weighs us down from living freely and wholly.
Presbyterian minister and author Frederick Buechner writes that Jesus was trying to figure out what it meant to be Jesus. And, so too do we make this spiritual trek to try and figure out what it means to be us. More than giving up swearing (what a fun Easter that would be!) or ice cream or twitter Lent is to be about becoming more you and adding or, if need be, removing habits and actions that stunt your growth, dim your light, un-zest your saltiness and spice-i-ness.
The season begins with the imposition of ashes. I always struggled with what were the best words to use when placing the ash-made cross onto the forehead of another. Many years the folks in my congregation were already down and defeated and feeling very much discarded. The best words I ever received were "You are a child of God, sent from God. One day God will call you back home."
Lent re-minds us of our mortality. The rabbis teach that each of us should have two pockets, in one should be the message "I am dust and ashes" and in the other we should have written "for me the universe was made."
May your Lenten journey be one of balance and becoming wholly you as we journey from "ashes to fire."
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