From stardust we are born and to stardust we shall return.

I simply LOVE this imagery. My colleague, Rev. Stacy Tate, at Friedens UCC in Irvington, IL placed this imagery into my heart when we were preparing for Ash Wednesday worship. It is incredibly true. At our most fundamental, we are all made up of the same element that exists throughout the cosmos. When wondering and searching for the “where did we come from”…it seems to me that we came from the same place that everything came…in it’s most elemental form…a building block of our humanness that can be found in every part of the created. All “living” things on this created earth are composed of these four elements (and more of course): hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. At our core we are made up of the same pieces of the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and the ground that we stand upon. These same elements also form the stars, the planets, and the spaces between all of them and all of us. Cool, right? I think so.

Then I wonder…if we are so fundamentally connected, why do we often times feel so isolated and alone? I wonder if our disconnectedness in a world that is more technologically connected than ever before in history is actually a result of our technological advancements? I wonder if our connectedness is based more squarely on the simplicity of our five basic human senses interacting with the created world we live within?

And all of these wonderings linger in my thoughts as I think about Ash Wednesday reflectively. From stardust we are born and to stardust we shall return… Ashes to ashes, dust to dust… It seems to me that our existence and the existence of the cosmos is no “accident” or something that simply always has been. For me, everything had to come from somewhere…even when considering the “big bang” that thrust the earth into its existence came from something that was already in place in the cosmos. In my faith and my belief, I hold firmly to the idea that God, the Divine creator, the architect of life and the cosmos…spoke everything into being. With just a word, an idea, a whimsical thought or wondering…everything was flung into it’s existence. Can you EVEN imagine…

We too, are spoken into being. We are called and named as beloved children of God. In thinking about that as we begin this Lenten journey…I wonder how this spiritual journey will unfold for me throughout Lent? I wonder if I will have the discipline to take the intentional time to listen, be still and wrestle with what the day has presented to me and sometimes thrusts in my path to overcome? A quote from theologian Rachael A. Keefe from her book, “Negotiating the Shadows”, “If Lent is a spiritual journey, then the road should be treacherous and the light of Easter not always visible. We ought to arrive at Good Friday worn out from wrestling our own demons and ready to offer up all the things which hold us captive to make room for the new life of Easter morning.” Keefe goes further in addressing Ash Wednesday and the Lenten journey in a dialogue she presents between, who I believe, herself and the Divine, “You’ll go where you need to go. It’s your journey. But you said, ‘desert, wilderness and darkness. Yes, You’ve been to these places before; I’ve seen you there. But you’re telling me I need to go again–to the chaos and the brokenness and the painful places. It will be different this time. You go with intention. Look for the stillness in the chaos, the healing in the brokenness, and for the hope in the pain. I will be there.”

And so I enter with intention into this season of Lent. I enter with the knowledge that I am created and named by God and I am made up of the same elements of that within the whole of the created cosmos. I enter, humbly, into the spaces of brokenness, chaos and unknowning-ness. I enter into this journey…wondering how it shall unfold and knowing that I will journey where I need to go. I wonder how the Holy will reveal itself to me and within myself? I wonder how others will journey through this season alongside me? I wonder if my seeking the Divine in the midst of the sacred silence and chaos of life will be heard and received by me…even if it’s not what I want to hear and feel. I wonder…will I have the courage? Will I have the grit and the strength for the wrestling? I wonder…within my living between my stardust beginning and my stardust returning…how will my turning and facing the Divine alongside me and within myself deepen my faith?