Tuesday Prayer: Dust and Destiny

Father, tomorrow I'll be marked with ashes and reminded I'm dust. This is hard to hear in a culture that denies death, but it's true. I am dust - mortal, fragile, destined to return to the ground. Every pretension I maintain, every image I cultivate, every accomplishment I pursue will eventually turn to dust too.

But you love dust. You became dust in Jesus, experienced everything dust experiences, died the death dust dies. And then you rose, transforming dust into glory, mortality into eternal life, death into resurrection. Thank you that dust is not my destiny - new creation is.

As Lent begins tomorrow, give me courage to face honestly what I usually avoid - my sin, my mortality, my desperate dependence on grace I can't earn. Strip away my pretensions. Shatter my pride. Let me walk these forty days with brutal honesty about who I am (dust) and beautiful hope about who you are (the One who raises dust to life). I am dust, but I'm dust you love. That's everything.