Today, as a deacon, I’ll stand before God’s people
with a thumb full of ashes…
and it never goes quite the way you hope.
Sometimes they clump.
Sometimes there’s barely enough on your fingertips.
Hair gets in the way.
Foreheads are a little too oily.
Nothing is perfect.
Nothing is smooth.
And maybe that’s exactly the point.
Right in the middle of all that awkwardness—
all that humanity—
I speak two small, ancient lines.
Two formulas the Church has whispered for centuries,
each one a doorway into conversion.
“Remember that you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
“Repent,
and believe in the Gospel.”
Simple words.
But they set the tone for the whole season.
Because the Lord is still calling:
Even now… return to me with your whole heart.
Not with perfect technique.
Not with flawless ministry.
But with your whole heart.
And we ministers—
we who fumble with ashes and stumble with words—
we hear our own summons too:
Let the ministers of the Lord weep…
Spare, O Lord, your people.
So today I pray for the grace
not to receive God’s mercy in vain—
but to let these ashes mark me first,
turn me first,
convert me first—
so I can walk with God’s people
back to Him with my whole heart.
Prayer
Lord, take these imperfect ashes
and trace Your mercy on my heart.
Take my fumbling hands
and make them instruments of Your call.
Return me to You with my whole heart—
dust and all, weakness and all—
so I may not receive Your grace in vain,
but walk with Your people
back to the One who makes us whole.
Amen
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