Ash Wednesday

We need to deny the powers that control us, turn our backs on them, and go in a new direction. Perhaps this new direction will come from the abandonment of a deep-seated habit that holds us in its grip. Perhaps there is a need to have a breakthrough in a relationship with a friend or with someone who is no longer a friend. Perhaps we need to forgive someone of a wrong done to us in the past. These are the kinds of sins that hold us back from the experience of a more complete newness. Once they are cared for, a rush of newness comes upon us because we have denied the power of sin over us and turned ourselves toward an obedience to Christ's will for our lives, which allows us to experience a freedom from sin that makes us feel we have a fresh start, a new birth.

Robert Webber