Tonight, we gathered for Mosaic as usual, but I also planned an Ash Wednesday observance.  Now, just this week I posted about red states.  I am smack dab in the middle of a red block of baptists.  No that there is anything wrong with that, but like my friend Mark wrote today, many think it is Catholic or Lutheran.  I actually like the observance for the three reasons Mark listed.

1. It is a reminder of our mortality. From dust we come — to dust we shall return.

2. It is a call to humility. We must rememer that apart from Christ, we’re only dust.

3. It is a challenge to repentance — since life is short, and we live only by grace — we shoud mend our ways and follow the Savior wholeheartedly. We all searched our hearts at the service and made sure everything was right with God.

Now, last year we almost ended up burning down the church, so there was to be no open flames except for a candle.  Last year, I had each person write sins that God revealed to them on a piece of paper.  Each person brought their slip of paper forward and placed it in a container, which then I tried to set aflame (This is just a bad idea!)  Thanks to Wesleyan blogger, Phil, I got an idea to do the same thing, but only shred the slips of paper to indicate forgiveness.  One thing I added was to play Casting Crown’s “East to West” during the time of reflection.  It was very powerful. 

We didn’t place ashes, but we did read scripture, sing some songs, and participated in communion together, which is always interesting with student ministries.  It seemed as the night came together the theme was forgivness — the forgiveness that we receive from God, we must impart to others.  I’m thankful that it came together so well.  This week has been a roller coaster of emotion because my mother-in-law has had some serious health issues and it is hard to be away at times like this.  Again, I want to praise our students, who were well behaved two weeks in a row (This is a major praise!) I was under some major stress because last year our students had some real behavioral issues (sometimes it just feels like baby sitting, but not tonight) 

The Holy Spirit was a work.  Anna did a great job with the media, especially considering that the whole order of service had changed by the end of the night.  We dropped a few songs and added a video and didn’t use all the scripture and responsive readings we had planned. 

Thank you Lord, for giving us the chance to reach out to the students of Martinsville/Henry County.  I really believe we are starting to make a difference.  Carp Diem!