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Lent begins today and
so does our daily devotional journey. My plan is for each daily devotion to
encourage deeper exploration of the topic in the preceding Sunday’s sermon.
However, this doesn’t mean that if you missed the sermon or aren’t a part of
our worshiping community you can’t participate. While the devotions will have a
connection to the sermon material, they will stand on their own merit. That
said, you can go to concordumc.com and click resources to watch the sermon if
would like. My prayer is that God will use these brief daily reflections as a
way to connect us to Jesus’ journey to the cross and deepen our relationship
with him and more fully experience the depths of his love and the power Love
has to overcome the barriers in all of us that can block the fullness of God’s
love. Now, onto today’s devotion.
Love Speaks
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your
food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you
are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:19 NIV
Overcoming the Barrier
Today is Ash Wednesday, which is observed as the beginning
of the season of Lent in Christian churches of various creeds and denominations
around the world. In most churches ashes will be applied in the sign of the
cross on worshipers’ foreheads. The idea of applying ashes as a sign of grief
and repentance dates back to the Old Testament when the Hebrew people would
wear uncomfortable sackcloth garments and place ashes on their heads as a sign
of their inner discomfort produced by their disobedience. For Christians, the 40-day
(excluding Sundays) period known as Lent began in the 4th Century as
a time of fasting and prayer. The application of ashes became common by the 10th
Century. Today, the tradition continues as fronds the kids waved during the
previous year’s Palm Sunday observance are burned to produce the ashes for Ash
Wednesday.
Whether we heap ashes on our heads or a pastor artfully draws
a cross on our forehead, the idea is the same. The ashes create the outward
sign of an inward struggle, a barrier to the deeper life to which God calls
each of us which can only be overcome by the power of love. Not all of us will
wear the mark of the cross from an Ash Wednesday service, today, but we all
bear the mark of sin and are faced with barriers to the fullness of life God
intends. Perhaps today is the day to take an honest look at the outer markings
of our lives such as anxiety, insecurity, or the need to sooth an inner pain
with material things. These and other surface symptoms may be manifestations of
deeper damage that needs the tender touch of Jesus’ healing love. Just as the
passage above may not sound like our idea of love, healing love may be as
uncomfortable as sackcloth at first. But, as the barriers fall, Jesus’ love can
comfort us like that favorite fleece jacket, warm, soft, familiar.
which God calls each of us which can only be overcome by the power of love. Not all of us will wear the mark of the cross from an Ash Wednesday service, today, but we all bear the mark of sin and are faced with barriers to the fullness of life God intends. Perhaps today is the day to take an honest look at the outer markings of our lives such as anxiety, insecurity, or the need to soothe an inner pain with material things. These and other surface symptoms may be manifestations of deeper damage that needs the tender touch of Jesus' healing love. Just as the passage above may not sound like our idea of love, healing may be as uncomfortable as sackcloth at first. But, as the barriers fall, Jesus' love can comfort us like that favorite fleece jacket, warm, soft, familiar.
Prayer
God of love, please give me the courage to take a hard look at the things I've become used to and surround myself with that are hiding barriers to a deeper life with you. In Jesus' name, amen.
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