Wednesday Prayer: Ash Wednesday

Father, today I'm marked with ashes and reminded I'm dust. This is uncomfortable truth in a culture that denies death, but it's true. I am dust - mortal, fragile, dying, unable to save myself. Every pretension I maintain will eventually return to dust too.

Thank you for loving dust. Thank you for breathing life into dust at creation and promising to breathe resurrection life into dust at the end. Thank you that the same ashes marking my mortality also form a cross - reminder that you entered my dusty existence, died my dusty death, and rose to transform dust into glory.

These forty days ahead, keep me honest. Don't let me minimize my sin or deny my mortality. Don't let me pretend I'm less broken than I am or less in need of grace than I feel. Strip away my pretensions. Shatter my pride. Let me face fully what made Easter necessary so I can rejoice fully in the resurrection that's coming. I am dust, but I'm dust you love. That's everything.