Forty Days

I love my church. I love that it is a Baptist church unafraid of shaking things up a little in ways of ministry but that holds to the traditional worship environment I find beautifully reverent. I love that my daughter is growing up with the knowledge that her service to God is every bit as valued as that of her brothers. I love that we embrace liturgical practices few other Baptist churches acknowledge and that we seek to reach out to people wholly unlike ourselves.  Oh…we are far from perfect, but we stumble toward grace together.

Tonight was our Ash Wednesday service. It was a study in the contrast between dark and light, between penitence and anticipation. We marked ourselves with ashes and carried away a piece of sackcloth to remember during these forty days that we are deeply flawed people in need of the reflection this Lenten season can offer.

O cross of ashes, speak again in ways I understand;

speak forth repentance, let me know forgiveness from Your hand.

Have mercy on us, Lord, we pray; look deep within and find

our hearts made whole, our thoughts made pure, our eyes no longer blind.

from R.G. Hull’s  “I Take the Cross of Jesus Christ” Celebrating Grace (tune arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams)

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