Lent, Day 2: Thank you, Rev. Sandi

Just a quick note today to say thanks to our pastor, the Rev. Sandi Dillon, for leading a very meaningful Ash Wednesday service last night.

After singing some hymns, reading some Scripture and delivering a good sermon, Rev. Sandi had everyone in attendance write one thing that is keeping them from a close relationship with God on a small piece of paper. My contribution: "Busyness."

Her husband, Jimbo, collected the papers, which she burned in a glass bowl on the altar along with some dried palm leaves from last year's Palm Sunday observance (which is traditionally the basis for the ashes in many churches, I learned Sunday in youth group).

She then invited us to come forward as we felt called to have the ashes placed on our foreheads in the form of a cross.

I left thinking about "busyness" and all of the other things that get in the way of a closer relationship with God, my family, friends, etc. And I couldn't help but tie it back to my need to focus more on the journey than the destination.

Thanks, Rev. Sandi, for being the conduit for the "a-ha" moment that the Holy Spirit must have known I needed.