Blog:FOREST LAKE TALKS

The season of Lent begins on Wednesday, March 5th with Ash Wednesday! Lent is the six-week period of preparation during which all followers of Jesus are called to prepare themselves (body and spirit) for the observance and celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection at Easter. As always, your staff plans diligently for worship, faith formation, service and community events that will invite you to practice your faith! This season we will focus on the theme: Grounded In Gospel. During Lent we will focus on identifying core behaviors that help shape our actions and decisions as followers of Jesus.

Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day when we focus on our own failures and sin and ask God to forgive, heal and restore us. The sign of ashes is worn (normally on the forehead) as a sign of repentance and humility. After Adam and Eve sin in the Garden of Eden, God tells them (and us) that we came from dust, and to dust we will return. (Genesis 3:19). I don’t want to spoil the movie, but that is true for every one of us. Plan to observe Ash Wednesday in a way that is meaningful to you. Maybe that means spending time in prayer, talking honestly to God about where you are and where you want to be. Perhaps it means writing a letter asking for forgiveness that you have been meaning to write and send for a long time. Maybe your observance is a quiet, anonymous act of love for someone who cannot pay you back. Observe Ash Wednesday in a way that makes sense to you. Let me tell you about your options here at FLPC.

On March 5th you can choose to drive to the covered driveway in our Rockbridge parking lot between 4pm and 5:30pm. Ed or I will be there to pray with you and will mark you with ash. Or you might choose to come into the Sanctuary between 5:30 and 6:00 (come as you are and when you are able!). There you will invited to sit and make your own prayers. There will be Scripture to read, prayer prompts, and some activities that you may choose to do. I will have appropriate children’s activities to keep the little ones busy in the sanctuary while you do your own prayer work. When you choose, you may walk forward and receive the sign of ash. So, there will not be a traditional service, with a beginning and an end. Come when you want, stay as long as you want, but come.

Every year we begin again this journey to the cross with Jesus. In 2017, when our FLPC group walked the Camino de Santiago in Northwest Spain, pilgrims greeted each other with “Buen Camino!” (Good Pilgrimage!) Let us begin again!

Buen Camino!