Ash Wednesday: Beautiful Things out of the Dust

 "...He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory."   Isaiah 61:3

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  Today is also the first day of the month of Adar, which is the Hebrew month of Joy.   

The past few weeks have been filled with long, difficult conversations with God. Conversations about expectations, perceptions, passion, motivation... and submission and surrender.  Lots and lots of conversation about submission and surrender.   God seems to have stopped being subtle with me.   In whatever season this is that I currently find myself, there are no whispers or secret codes or hard-to-decipher analogies.   Instead it seems like God has picked up one of those Little Caesar's signs that the high school kids wave on the side of the road to get you to stop in and grab a pizza.    God has that sign, a bright orange background with block letters emblazoned on the front if it, waving it at my windshield as I sit at a stoplight waiting for the red light to turn green...  "SURRENDER!  SUBMIT!  LAY IT ALL DOWN!"   No subtlety, this God of mine.    The scene doesn't feel very joyful in my mind. 

Tonight as I sat through an Ash Wednesday service at a church not my own, God again made sure to bring His sign to wave in front of my face and over my heart.    I heard Him say again, "Surrender!  Submit! Lay it all down!"  It's not a barking command as much as a firm invitation.   I heard His  invitational words again as I and a few hundred others sang out the lyrics to a song:  "You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of us."

And as I sang, all the lessons I've been learning were laying before me.  He finally had my attention.   And finally, fearful hesitation gave way to joyful surrender as I realized that all of my expectations, perceptions, passions, and motivations... they really are dust.   But when I submit them to Him, He makes something beautiful out of them. It's taken me twenty years to learn that submitting to God doesn't mean I'm settling for second best.  Surrendering to Him is actually giving myself permission to receive God's very best for me.  My plans and expectations pale in comparison to His.  He's the God who formed all of creation ex nihilo, out of nothing.  Certainly He can take my plans and form something beautiful.     And that, my friends, is a joyous thing. 

So today on the first day of Lent, I choose to lay down all those neatly organized plans I've composed for myself.   All the alphabetical, color-coded, laminated outlines for my life (if you know me well you realize that's not much of an exaggeration)...  He gets to have them.   I am confident He will make beautiful things out the dust, and it will all be for His glory.  Oh, the joy that floods my soul now that I've realized the power and beauty of surrender.