Measuring Your Life: An Ash Wednesday Reflection

Last updated on: February 10, 2016 at 11:56 am by Brandan Robertson

Measuring Your Life: An Ash Wednesday Reflection 2016-02-10T11:56:55-04:00 Brandan Robertson

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“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” These are the words being spoken by Christian clergy around the world today as the faithful gather to commemorate Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent.

Ash Wednesday is a day that calls us to remember our finitude, the impermanence of every aspect of our lives. It is a day when we recall all of our weaknesses and remember just how much we are in need of God’s unconditional grace. This day reminds us that no matter how much we’ve accomplished, no matter what circumstances surround us, and no matter what lies ahead, we are dust. Our lives are but a shimmer on the screen of the cosmos. We are here and then we aren’t.

Naturally, Ash Wednesday draws us into a process of weighing our lives. Do our values and beliefs actually align with the way that we are living day to day? Are we maximizing our potential or are we wasting our energy? Are our lives full of hubris and ego, or do we recognize and embrace our lowly estate?

For America, Ash Wednesday couldn’t have come at a better time. So much of our collective energies are being poured into endless political banter while families around our nation are struggling to get the medical care that they need. We grasp tightly to our wealth and freely spend copious amounts of money on personal pleasure, and get offended when the we pass by outside the shopping mall asks us for a few dollars for a meal. We spend a majority of our days captivated by computer screens, while the beauty and wonder of the world around us simply passes by.

It is easy to get caught in the illusion of self-importance. Believing that the way you spend your time and the things you give your life to are actually meaningful and worthwhile. But when take a few steps back and examine our lives through the lens of our finitude, everything suddenly comes into focus. Maybe you don’t need to win that argument with your spouse. Maybe watching that next video of Donald Trump yelling about building a wall isn’t a good use of your life. Maybe you could spare a few dollars every day to help another person eat. Maybe you could actually survive without looking at Facebook or Twitter for a day. Maybe our lives really do have so much more potential and value than we ascribe to them by our actions.

How do you spend your life? What are your priorities and values? Do they align with the way you use your time each and every day? These are the questions that Ash Wednesday calls us to ask. The ashes on our foreheads are bold reminder that our time is limited, that privilege and hierarchies are nothing but delusions that we construct, that we all begin our lives and will end them in the same exact way. They remind us that our time here is limited and that our lives hold tremendous value and potential. What will we do to redeem our time?

May each of us stop and reflect on the absurdity and beauty of our lives. May we use this season of repentance to refine our rhythms and reform our actions. And may we know, deep down in our being, that we are dust. Beautiful, magnificent, mysterious, dust. And may that realization help us live our lives as people who measure our time wisely, give our lives freely, and love each other boldly. Amen.

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