Ash Wednesday

     In our church's Ash Wednesday service this year, we did things a little differently.  Instead of having a cross of ashes drawn on our forehead by our pastor, we each dipped our own finger in ashes and drew a cross on a card with Bible verses on it to help us remember the journey we Christians each travel from death to life. (Yes, that's the correct order for Christians— from death to life!)
     As I looked at my ash-blackened finger tip, I thought to myself, we have each touched death.  Scientists say our cells are dying from the moment of our birth.  In each of us is the seed of death, planted there by original sin.  Unless we are still alive when Christ comes again, death is inexorable.  It will come for each of us in turn.
     Death is all around us.  We see our loved ones die almost daily.  The curse of Sin even extends to creation itself.  We can observe nature move from life to death.  Contrary to the theory of evolution,  life does not spontaneously spring from nothing.  If such a thing as primordial soup ever existed, it never birthed a single cell—it was always only smelly swamp water.  Nature does not move from the simple to the complex. It breaks down and *de*composes.  There's even a scientific principle named to describe this fact, the law of entropy. Unless an outside source intervenes, everything dies.
     But moreover, there is born in each of us, begat by original sin, a seemingly inexorable spiritual death. Whether you believe the soul sent to hell lives on in eternal torment, permanently separated from God's love (Therefore separated from all love!), or if you believe, like some denominations, that the soul is burnt up in hell and ceases to exist, both are death.
     Perhaps more concerningly, however, is the death the soul experiences on Earth before the physical body dies, if it is not reconciled to Christ.  Perhaps it is part of the curse of sin, but it is a well-known fact that humans become desensitized to repeated exposures. It doesn't matter if it's a positive or negative experience.
     The more violent Video games and/or movies one watches, the less the violence affects you. Conversely, for example, many workers at the Hershey's factory report losing the ability to smell chocolate! (The horror!)
     During these last days of Lent, I'd like to encourage you to look at the world around you with fresh eyes.  To what have you become desensitized?  Christians often celebrate when a believer dies, because they've been fully united with God, but does that make death less horrible?  In some ways yes, but in some ways no!
 
​                    To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 
​                    A time to be born, and a time to die;
​                    A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 
​                    A time to kill, and a time to heal;
​                    A time to break down, and a time to build up; 
​                    A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
​                    A time to mourn, and a time to dance
​                    (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 (KJV))

Take stock of your life in these last few days of Lent.  It may be time to laugh, but it may be time to mourn.  Know that God is with you, laughing or mourning right along with you!  Assess your life during Lent, so that when the time is right to turn toward Easter, The Risen Lord Jesus, and a time to celebrate, the slate of your life can be wiped clean, and you can move forward with fresh, "Un-desensitized" eyes, to walk into God's love!

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