Ash Wednesday

I hit up Ash Wednesday service last week for the first time in years. There were only about fifteen people in the church, and as usual I was a few minutes late.

I think why I tend to avoid Ash Wednesday and Lent is because it forces me to be introspective about my life and slow it down for a while. The services are solemn, with limited music and devoid of any "Hallelujah"s. You are asked to honestly assess something that may be controlling you more than it should and give it up for 40+ days (Sundays aren't counted in the Lenten calendar, so Lent is actually about 46 days). And the most humbling part is the walk to the altar, when the pastor sticks his thumb in a bowl of moistened ashes of last year's Palm Sunday leaves and consecrates your forehead, saying, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Wow. I have been put in my place. Any ego or feelings of grandiosity I have constructed up to that moment disintegrate as I walk back to my seat in the pew.

I still haven't figured out what to give up or what to add to my life for Lent. As I was telling a friend the other night, lately I've just given up whatever obscure vice is left standing after 40 days, like drunk snorkeling or punching my aunt's dog. I found out my brother is giving up red meat and also fasting on Sundays for Lent. I'm looking forward to having an Easter burger with him after he gets back to the states.

I'm feeling called to be more intentional about it this year. Is it too late to give up dropping the F-bomb?