2026-02-18 Lent - Day 1 Lent - Ash Wednesday Good Morning! Welcome to the Season of Lent! Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Lent is the 40 days, not counting Sundays, leading up to Easter. It is a time of prayer, fasting, and charity. Some people give up something during this time of year. Perhaps soda, or tv time, or something else that can help connect to God. Many find deeds of charity. Whatever it is, the goal is to strengthen our spirit. If you do give up something, spend that time in prayer. It helps to make a list of things to pray for so when you are in your prayer time, it will have substance. Most importantly, it is a time of reflection. A time to come to grips with our mortality and understand our weakness in body and spirit. We learn in Genesis 3:19 when God spoke to Adam and Eve after their sin: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return". C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite old time gospel preachers. He had a quote that I have used many times. He said "You don't have a soul. You are a Soul!!! You have a body". When we think of our mortality, Rev. Lewis had it right. We seem to be focused on our bodies all the time. For example, our body can get sick or as in my case, body aches! LOL! Old age certainly has its drawbacks! Because we feel the physical discomfort when we are sick or sore, that is what gets our attention. But we should be more concerned about our spiritual illnesses. We know when our soul aches because we can feel that as well, but we often don’t know what to do about it. The answer is simple. Reconnect with God. Humble ourselves before our Creator. Lay our troubles at the cross and recognize that God loves us more than we could ever imagine. There will be many Ash Wednesday services all around the world today. We will have ours at Luther FCC at 6:30 this evening. I hope you will join us. And remember the scripture today that reads, “Be still and know I’m God”.