Don your ashes

Luke 18:9-14

           Invariably I am on the road somewhere and someone cuts across 4 lanes of traffic to make the ever so fast approaching exit. Or perhaps it's the person who is annoyed that I am doing the speed limit - in the dark - on a winding country road - and I get the wave, just not with all 5 fingers of the hand mind you, but certainly a wave. What is it about many of us that does not allow us to see that we make mistakes? We will liberally throw around blame on everyone but ourselves. If someone is bold enough or has the chutzpah to point out our mistake, we counter with indignance, how rude they are, certainly how wrong they are and perhaps an expletive or two and that famous one finger wave.  

          While far, far from perfect, I learned early on, perhaps because of my profession, that mistakes are good insofar as they can teach you how not to make the mistake again. The medical field has embraced this so that errors are less punitive and followed up on as means to determine where we went wrong, what contributed to the error and most importantly, how can we prevent it from happening again.  Punishment and yelling rarely solve the root problem. In industry then you'll see the phrase 'root cause analysis'.

          The fact is we are all imperfect. Our role here on earth as God's beloved creations is to love and to be the best that we can be. We are to perfect, as much as we can, the human being we are that God so carefully and intently created.

           Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The beginning of the Holy season that culminates not so much with the death of Jesus ( which is in itself incredibly important to us ), but with his resurrection and the promise of new life for all of us. Lent is a journey. It is not a hurried journey where we race across 4 lanes f traffic to get to Easter Sunday. Lent should be a slow and intent journey to work on ourselves, to appreciate what we have and to try and grow, if even just slightly, into the grand creation God created us to be. To do so we must acknowledge and make realistic and honest self judgements about who we are and how we act.  In other words, a time of repentance. In other words a time to devote space for God in  our day and lives so we can, once again, become the  grand creation God created us to be. We are not unlike a caterpillar in a cocoon who awaits becoming that beautiful butterfly.

             But we must go through self assessment and change. We must recognise our faults and weaknesses and address them realizing that faults do not make us a bad person. Inside is that grand creation waiting to shine through, waiting to be a conduit of God's all embracing and glorious love.

              Make that honest self assessment, don your ashes, figuratively or literally and start Lent with the conviction and a commitment to a renewed relationship with God and with yourself. 

        

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble