It is all too fitting this particular Lent that it begins with ashes. As I receive the dark outline of the cross on my forehead, my heart’s prayer was that on Easter Sunday the ashes in my life are not burned palm branches…but the charred remains of my sin…my rebellion…my stubborness…my independence…my self-reliance…my selfishness…my anything that separates me from God. Lent is a time to crucify…a time to send to the fire…a time to put to death the self…the flesh…the stuff that gets in our way of being who God created us to be. I want to use this Lent…to allow God to use this Lent…to make me more of who I really am….more of who He really made. This is my heart’s cry.

“Remember, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” -Genesis 3:19

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” – Mark 1:15