My Lent started out with an early morning airport drop off for the husband, a sick kid, and a packed to-do list. I showed up at Ash Wednesday worship last night feeling like I was failing at both momming and pastoring. I forgot the songbooks, had to call my associate on the way to church to make sure we had ashes, and left a feverish kiddo on the couch. I was distracted and disappointed.
Then worship began. Rev Laura Jaquith Bartlett is the Minister of Liturgical Arts for SFC and she planned and led the worship experience. She spoke of the work of Lent and the reminder present in our ritual of ashes. There was something so beautiful in entering the time feeling like a mess and knowing God met me in my failure, my brokenness, my mortality.
When the vinegar dressing company wrote all purpose on the bottle I’m not sure they had this in mind. #ImprovisedMortarAndPestle #GrindingTheAsh
As we sang, prayed, and embraced silence I found such beauty and hope in the reality of a God who forgives us and strengthens us for the ministry of justice, peace, and mercy that we are each called to in this life.
This is why I love the season of Lent, because it’s raw, it is real, it is about our human frailties meeting the grace of a God who loves us and walks with us in our humanness. As we prepare for the joy coming in new life we connect with the truth of who we are, dust and ash. It is a beautiful journey of death to life each year and something I know I vitally need for my spirit this year and always.
-Eilidh
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