Ash Wednesday: Gateway to Cross Training

Ash Wednesday is the entrance ramp to Lent. We receive crosses of ash on our forehead, not as some sort of blessing, but as a sober reminder of our mortality ("Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return) as well as a call to join the crosses that we bear in our daily lives to the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus transformed the cross from being a symbol of pain, suffering, humiliation, and death into an avenue to resurrection, new life, and hope! Your crosses don't define you; rather, if you join them to the cross of Jesus they can help to transform you into the person God has called you to be!