Today is Ash Wednesday.\u00a0 Many of us Christians will be walking around with a smudge of ashes upon our forehead.<\/p>\n
It might seem odd, but this is a favorite day of the year for me.\u00a0 Ash Wednesday heralds another Lent, another chance to get my messy life in order.\u00a0 Unfortunately, my life is like the sheds on the farm that I never get completely organized.\u00a0 But one shan\u2019t give up, daunting as the task is.<\/p>\n
Those ashes pressed upon our foreheads are made from burning palm leaves left over from last year\u2019s Palm Sunday, connecting seasons past and present.\u00a0 Technically one is not \u201cdirty\u201d when you are so marked. \u00a0\u201cAshy\u201d would be more accurate. \u00a0But it looks dirty.\u00a0 I like that.<\/p>\n
Often in the work of farming, I am dirty.\u00a0 A good day means there is plenty to clean off before sleep.\u00a0 Dirt, crop dust, grease, oil, sweat can be signs of a full day with lots accomplished.\u00a0 Some not so good days have found me similarly begrimed. \u00a0Either, they feel like \u201creal\u201d days.\u00a0 Days spent doing paperwork and running errands are important.\u00a0 But they don\u2019t carry the same real feeling.\u00a0 Real days find me bone-tired at the end, with a sense of satisfaction.<\/p>\n
Ashes are applied with these words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”\u00a0 Thus, the ashes blend with dust in meaning.\u00a0 We are dust; we are of this Earth, at least our bodies are.\u00a0 We shall return to dust.\u00a0 You know what that means.\u00a0 Death is in our future.\u00a0 Our physical selves will return to the Earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s not a cheery message.\u00a0 But it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the whole story though.\u00a0 As believers, we know we are only temporarily dust.\u00a0 Our soul is beyond dust, beyond Earth, beyond the stars.\u00a0 It exists not in time and not in place.\u00a0 Being humans and not angels, we can\u2019t comprehend that.\u00a0 Perhaps we will in the afterlife.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, here we are.\u00a0 I will look in the mirror later to see if the ashes are the dark, lasting type or the lighter, quick-to-fade kind.\u00a0 They will be a reminder that the figure I see is temporal and transitory.\u00a0 The same as every leaf or bird or critter I see scurrying about the grove.<\/p>\n
We have the difficult task of being fully in this moment in this place, while aware of eternity in a place that is no place.\u00a0 It\u2019s an almost impossible undertaking, like trying to walk while looking two directions at once.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t we fall over if we did that?\u00a0 We have to care for these vessels we occupy for sixty or eighty years.\u00a0 At the same time, we are to safeguard our souls that are eternal.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuality\u201d is a popular word that is used in many contexts.\u00a0 It fits here well.\u00a0 Duality, two things existing simultaneously and complementary.\u00a0 We have these two realities that sometimes seem at odds.\u00a0 There are times something might feel so right for our self here and now.\u00a0 But it could be robbing from my soul.\u00a0 When our body, mind, and soul are on the same waves, those are times we feel connected to those around us and to God.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an easy balance.<\/p>\n
What does it mean to live in this duality?\u00a0 A few thoughts.\u00a0 First, we will know that every other one of our fellow travelers is also lugging around a body and a soul created by God.\u00a0 Some of them will be easy to love, and it is a great blessing if we can count such a group as family and friends.\u00a0 Others come in and out of our lives, touching us and moving on, writing subchapters.<\/p>\n
Then there is a set who are challenging, maybe downright difficult.\u00a0 This will include some jerks.\u00a0 Especially when interacting with this group, it is good to remember that life on this side of the grave isn\u2019t easy for any of us.\u00a0 None of us can fully know the burdens upon another. \u00a0We might even be the jerks some days.<\/p>\n
All of them, from the loveable to the barely tolerable, all deserve a portion of respect, at least consideration.\u00a0 Jesus even calls us to love our enemy.\u00a0 C\u2019mon.\u00a0 That seems a bit much.\u00a0 But there it is.<\/p>\n
If we can be kind to the unkind or caring to the uncaring, those will possibly be marked among our greatest days when our lives on Earth are measured.\u00a0 We can try to be gentle in an increasingly harsh world.\u00a0 Don\u2019t post that snarky comment.\u00a0 Don\u2019t make fun of someone.\u00a0 Don\u2019t speak ill of another, even if they deserve it.<\/p>\n
Living the duality means we have an Earthly home and an eternal home.\u00a0 We know this one.\u00a0 A few bible passages and a lot of conjecture are all we know about the next one.\u00a0 The time will come soon enough we will learn of that.\u00a0 For now, we share responsibility to protect and preserve this home.\u00a0 This planet deserves reverence and awe, the same as any great cathedral or temple.\u00a0 God made it and now mankind can destroy it.\u00a0 We must help where we can.<\/p>\n
The duality means offering our imperfect selves to a perfect God.\u00a0 Trying and never quite getting it right is our condition here.\u00a0 That is frustrating.\u00a0 But it is the role we have been given to play in the script of our own great drama.<\/p>\n
We work every day to get it right.\u00a0 But Lent comes around on the church calendar every year to call forth special effort.\u00a0 Fasting, abstinence, and repentance are paths we can choose these forty days.\u00a0 I will try to spend more time each day in prayer and try to fit in scripture.\u00a0 I will again give up some drinking for Lent.\u00a0 \u201cSome\u201d drinking I guess is an imperfect resolution. \u00a0But it\u2019s useful to me.<\/p>\n
Lent can be a pilgrimage.\u00a0 Ash Wednesday begins the march toward Holy Week.\u00a0 That week, the entire message of Christianity will play out.\u00a0 From Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday to Good Friday to Easter, every emotion known to man will be on display as we bounce from exhilaration to pain and sorrow and finally, the joy of Easter.<\/p>\n
Let the Lenten journey begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today is Ash Wednesday.\u00a0 Many of us Christians will be walking around with a smudge of ashes upon our forehead. It might seem odd, but this is a favorite day of the year for me.\u00a0 Ash Wednesday heralds another Lent, another chance to get my messy life in order.\u00a0 Unfortunately, my life is like the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 11:46:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118121,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118120\/revisions\/118121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}