Ash Wednesday is about entering the silence.
Joel 2:12-13
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, return to the Lord, your God.
Looking to the cross is allowing the pause, a long enough pause to take a good look at the things on the horizontal. It is taking time in silence and solitude to return to the Lord. Setting up healthy routines to put first things first. When we return to the Lord with all our heart we create space for Him to strengthen us.
Lent gives us a time to reflect and make healthier choices for things on our horizontal (whatever sin or addiction, issue or instances), the things that have caused the chaos in our lives, the things that we keep stumbling over. The things we are searching to solve with our own strength and might! The things we want to find a way to do better.
The first healthy step to strengthening the vertical is to take a pause. The honest assessment of the horizontal (ya it might be messy) and place it in the loving caring arms of the Lord. Realizing that without the Holy Spirit’s help to uproot or prune the matters of the horizontal the roots of the vertical might as well be in sinking or shifting sand.
The wise build their life on the Lord Jesus Christ and when we are solid on that Rock we can weather the storms on the horizontal. Sure, we might slip off the rock over and over again until we have sure footing. It is knowing that the loving grace filled arms of the Lord are there each time we slip.
Strength on the vertical is returning (over and over again) to the Lord will all your heart, with every aspect of who you are, full dependency on He who makes us strong. That way, with whatever trip ups you have on the horizontal, whatever speed bump you hit, our good and gracious God is waiting with open arms.
May you enter into the silence of Lent with an open heart. May you cherish the pause, the silence as the light gets brighter as we take time to look to the cross.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit – Amen.
(Photo: Me and Dadsy Ash Wednesday 2025)
Anita Stettner 