Weird People

Yes, we are weird!

On our way home from the Ash Wednesday service, the girls asked to get a milkshake.  As we are waiting in the drive through one says to me, “I bet they think we are weird because we have ashes on our heads.”  Well, girls, we are weird!  The sign on our forward reminds us that we choose to live life God’s way.  We love the unlovable.  We pray for those who hurt us and are mean to us.  We practice peace and speak out against injustice.  We spend time feeding the hungry and visiting the prisoner.  We worship on Wednesday night and put ashes from the previous Palm Sunday on our heads.  We remind ourselves that our lives are temporary.  And we rejoice in death.  To the world these are weird practices.

Our identity is found in the reminder that we belong to God.  In a world, that puts so much emphasis on appearance, power, and prestige, we can find comfort from knowing that God loves us no matter what.  There is nothing we can do to earn God’s love and nothing we can do to have it taken away.  God’s love is unconditional and comes with no strings attached.  To the world, that is pretty weird, too.

Lent invites us to recommit ourselves to this weird way of being.  Today my forehead is clean.  I hope my actions will convey the weirdness of God’s love.