Ash Wednesday

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Today we enter forty days with Jesus, walking towards Calvary, more mindful of His death and our own. 

I did not pray to the Holy Spirit to show me what I need to give up this Lent as the Lord has already laid it out for me. My second, third, and forth chemo infusions all fall within Lent, my second being today on Ash Wednesday and my last scheduled for Holy Week. I will give up my appetite, my comfort, sleep, my hair, and more. 

As I walk with Jesus, I am not giving up my peace. Last weekend in Mass, I was praying for the Lord's guidance about how He wants me to pray this Lent. At the end of Mass, our priest announced that the parish had a Lenten gift for each family - Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Jacques Philippe, a favorite spiritual author of mine. 

I have read this book before many years ago. It is a 110 page spiritual powerhouse. Jacques Philippe has an incredible gift of conveying profound spiritual truth in very few words. Before this past weekend, I had been searching for my copy of this book to no avail. At the end of Mass, I was able to grab my copy and I have started rereading it. It is absolutely worth the reread. 

This morning's passage included one of my absolute all-time favorite Scripture verses from the Gospel of John:

When the Lord affirms that He gives us peace, that He gives us His peace, these words are divine words, words which have the same creative force as the words that brought the sky and the earth from the void, they carry the same weight as the words that quieted the storm, the words that healed the sick and brought the dead back to life. Since Jesus tells us, even twice, that He gives us His peace, we believe that this peace is never taken away. God's gift and His calling are irrevocable (Romans 11: 29). It is we who do not always know how to acquire or preserve them. Because quite often we lack faith. 

'I have told you these things so that you will have peace in Me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage! I have conquered the world (John 16: 33).' In Jesus, we may always abide in peace, because He has conquered the world, because He is resurrected from the dead. By His death, He conquered death, He annihilated the sentence of condemnation that weighs on us. He manifested the benevolence of God toward us. And 'with God on our side, who can be against us? . . . Who could ever separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8: 31)'

This Lent, I am going to stay rooted in these truths and come to them again and again when I falter. Maintaining peace doesn't mean that we don't falter. But as we allow God's Word to transform us and shape our hearts, we become more firmly anchored in Christ and the storms don't shake us so much. 

Another way that I like to remain rooted in Scripture is through music. Listening to the lyrics of praise and worship music very often means listening to verses from Scripture, saturating one's heart with God's truth. Melody is an ancient instrument to memorize words of great importance, a tool we can still intentionally use today. Listening to praise and worship music every day has truly been transformative for me and certainly helps me to maintain my peace. 

My favorite song this week is "Eyes Locked on the King" by Abbie Gamboa and UPPERROOM. The whole album is great, including some other favorites like "Pure," "I Get Overwhelmed Sometimes," and "Mountain Air." 

I will listen to this song several times today. I am thankful for the continued prayers of so many and I pray that this Lent we all will grow in our capacity to maintain our peace ever more deeply rooted in the love of Jesus.