On to Glory

Ash Wednesday service.
A time for self-reflection and repentance,
Confession and prayer.

I feel rebelliousness
Rising within me.
I feel my self-will struggling
Like an angry storm in my soul.
Oh Lord,
Why is it sometimes so hard?
There are days when it feels like,
From breath to breath,
I cannot hear You.
Other days,
I hear Your Clarion Call
Like a vibrant brass section
In my mind.

I, too, suffer from
A phrase coined by the archer:
"Shiny-object Syndrome."
So easily distracted am I!
So distracted by my everyday,
The thoughts and emotions and people
In my life.

Help me re-center,
Re-orient
Towards You.

Sitting in choir,
I watch the rows of people
Filing by,
And am struck by a feeling
Of oneness with them.
All of us,
The whole mass of humanity,
Strives toward You,
Longs for You.
In our souls,
We ache for You,
But get so easily distracted
By other things.
I know I am not alone in this.

The rows file past.
People willingly imprinted with ashen crosses
Walk by,
And I am one of them,
A being of ash and dust,
Made in Your Image,
Fallen,
Redeemed,
And marching on
With all the other graced sinners,
Into the Glory
Of Your Heavenly Kingdom!...