When Our Plans Turn to Ashes


Starting Over with Integrity
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday this week. People from all walks of life around the world will make their way to church to receive the mark of the cross in ashes on their foreheads. That is, they will do that if their particular faith community observes that ancient Christian practice. It can be a powerful service to attend, because it reminds us in spite of all our greatest designs and most meticulous planning, things can quickly turn to ashes before our eyes. 
Why Ashes?
Ashes are an ancient symbol of how our human cleverness, schemes and dreams all too easily go awry, and end up as a pile of ashes. People in ancient times would smear ash on their faces as a sign of mourning or in response to something terrible they had done, for which they were asking forgiveness.
In spite of all our good intentions and hopes, things still fall apart. How about you? What plans or dreams of yours have turned to ashes? What does it take to start over, but this time with integrity?
40 Days to Make the Shift
There’s an ancient practice that the church offers to all of us to help us come to terms with the ashes in our lives. For over a thousand years, every year people would spend the forty days before Easter thinking about what was going on in their lives – what was working and what wasn’t, who they had hurt and from whom they needed to ask forgiveness, things they were doing that they knew they needed to stop doing, that sort of thing. Because it was in the Spring, and the days started to lengthen, they called it “Lent,” from an old English word, “Lencten.” 
It's a Journey
Lent always starts with Ash Wednesday, and concludes with the joyous sounds of Easter. In between is a good time to think about what changes of direction our lives need to take, what changes of attitude might make our relationships go more smoothly, what things we need to apologize for, what we need to give up.
Dark to Light
One time in college, I was walking in the local park after it had rained. The rain caught the light as the sun came out. As I turned a corner in the path, I was nearly blinded by the
blaze of sunlight reflecting off the rain-soaked leaves. As I looked behind myself, the path I had come from was dark and shaded. The path ahead was effulgent with light. 
The path through Lent, like our path through life, is like that. It can begin with looking at a pile of ashes, enshrouded in darkness, but all we need to do is change our direction, look into the light, and walk that way. 
The Journey to Integrity
A life of integrity is not a new invention. Ancient Spiritual Practices, such as Prayer, Meditation, Fasting, Worship, Study, Forgiveness, Works of Compassion and Justice, and Committing to Love Rather than Hate can help form us into the sort of persons we long to be. the struggle to live with integrity is also not new. Judging from the headlines each day, it seems to me that this might be a good time for people everywhere to seriously stop and take stock of their lives, and to commit to a serious pursuit of integrity. 

Lent is a good time to begin that journey. For the next several weeks, I will lift up Spiritual Practices that come from ancient religious traditions, mainly Christian, with a special focus upon what I have found to be practices that Jesus specifically taught or lived  as an example. Come join me on this journey through Lent, and invite your friends along. Send them a link to this blog, and see what will emerge!

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