Why We Need Ash Wednesday

Create a clean heart for me, God;

put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!

Psalm 51:10

Two unrelated events are on my mind this Ash Wednesday.
First, a story on our local news last night about an apparent hate crime in nearby Shepherdsville.  Our family lives in Mt. Washington and the church I pastor - Hebron Presbyterian - has a Shepherdsville address, but is actually several miles north of Shepherdsville; at the end of the day though, it's all Bullitt County.  So this was local.  The crime took place in a storefront in an older stripmall type structure.  It appeared to be something of a convenience store and was identified as a "Smoke Shop".  The place was ransacked, the stores contents thrown every which way and paint splashed here and there with vile words and messages included.  Ugly.  The owner of the store was reported to be from another country, but it was never clearly stated as to where.  It's an important detail I guess, but the basic ugliness of what this appears to be needs no further explanation.

Second, I just read news accounts of the death of American print journalist Marie Colvin and French photo journalist Remi Orchlik after they came under intense fire while reporting the events currently going on in Syria.  The story of reports filed in the past couple of days by Ms. Colvin were especially poignant as she pleaded with the world to pay attention to the slaughter taking place in Syria and very specifically reported of the death of a two year old child as a result of the shelling.

Somehow these two unrelated events make me even more aware of why we need Ash Wednesday, why we need Lent, why we need Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter.  We need today because there is much that we need to turn from, much in our lives and in our world that requires repentance.  There is a brokenness that is at times beyond our comprehension.  It's in far off places like Syria and it's much closer by in Shepherdsville and it's still closer in myself.  I need and we need the space of Lent to prepare and to reflect.  And I/we need to embrace the reality of how very much we need what Christ has done for us - how completely necessary is this Lenten journey.