Tony Steward

Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent. It is a day that starts rituals for many across the world of 40 days in fasting and prayer. The ash is representative of someone who is mourning and repentant.

Repentance is powerful. It’s not just being sorry, its doing a 180 change in your life from many motivations. It’s often a bittersweet combination of hope, sorrow, conviction, hard truth, and compassion that brings us to a point of repentance.

There are in all of our lives, mine especially, things for which we need to step into repentance. Religious or not, knowing we need a change and stepping into that change is important - and that is why Ash Wednesday gives us a prompting to do just that.

I love these ritual’s for the richness of the story they tell and the specificity of the reminders they bring to our faith and hearts. Don’t let the day just fly by as usual. Look dead into the change you know you are avoiding, write it down if you need to make it real, and do some business in your own heart and with God if your faith is in him.