Dust Thou Art and to Dust thou Shall Return, Repent and Believe the Good News!

Today is Ash capital Wednesday, the only Christian day on the calendar that Hallmark will not produce a greeting card for!  It is the first day of Lent - the 40 day (not counting Sundays) preparation for Easter.  Christians typically fast for this period - a form of spiritual preparation for the great high feast of Easter.
To mark our period of fasting - and mourning for the sin we carry and the death that accompanies sin, we borrow from the Old testament tradition of ashes and sackcloth for mourning.  Well, the sackcloth piece has not really been adopted, but we do mark ourselves with ashes - usually on our foreheads in the sign of the cross.

 As the forehead is marked, the minister will usually say "Thou art dust, and to dust you shall return", reminding the person of their mortality, that we carry the inevitability of death within us and that this is theologically linked to our sin nature, and the sins that we may chose.   For added poignancy try being a hospital chaplain and walking through the oncology floor with ashes.   As I did so, I reflected that there is no guarantee that I will outlive any of these dear souls.
In more recent days, ministers may chose the alternative, more positive words "Repent and believe the Good News".  The Good News is that when we could not find God, God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ, and has done for us what we could not do for ourselves - to remove the guilt and disease of our sin far from us, reconciling us to God and giving us His Spirit within us to comfort, guide and mediate His love to us, for right now and for evermore.  Good News indeed!

This is a free gift from God, but it must be received:  We 'repent' or turn away from living for our own selves, ambitions and agendas, and instead we take upon ourselves the role of servant of God, adopted children, obedient not from fear but from love, to the Father God who freely gives unconditional love, forgiveness, encouragement, and human flourishing (blessing).

So welcome to Lent.  We journey towards the cross that saves us, and the empty tomb that brings us new life.  As we go, we shed the baggage of our sin, and we start with the ashes.