Lenten Reflections: Realistic

"Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me." - Psalm 51:5

The Psalmist came to know what we ignore.  He embraced what we reject. 

His own guilt. His own sin. His own filth. 

He owned what we refuse to buy. 


Ashes 
         to 
             ashes. 
                       Dust 
                               to 
                                   dust.

We are dust. Remember the ashes? 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

"Hey, bro. You've got dirt on your forehead."

"Really? You should see my soul!"  

 While we walk in the fog of the unrealistic, the Pslamist embraced the realistic. 

We are dust. We are filth.

But through Christ, the realistic is embraced and made clean. He doesn't see us though unrealistic eyes. He sees what is real and understands who we are. He didn't ignore our sin; He came to take it away. He came to clean us up. 

The reality of Lent is that Christ didn't come to this planet to judge the filth that we already knew we were covered with; He came to embrace the filth, live in it and give us realistic eyes. He came to bring Heaven to Earth. 

I'm filthy. You're filthy. But through Christ, we come together in complete unity; pure and clean in His Kingdom. The world's kingdoms are dumps, but together we transform this world into a playgrownd. 

Lord, help us to be mercifully realistic in our relationships with one another and with You. Help us to embrace the filth, realizing that through You, we are clean. Help us to transform this stinking dump into the Kingdom that You always had in mind: Heaven on earth. Amen