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Day 2 of 40

Last night, we had an Ash Wednesday service at church. One of the things that we do is to write down sins or burdens and then burn them. Sometimes, the flames can get pretty high. And then after placing our sins in the fire, we can have ashes placed on our heads. Now the ashes are generally made from the palm leaves from the previous year. But part of me contemplates the ashes from my just burned burdens.

Seriously, why do I hold on to this stuff? And I can see that it's not just emotional, spiritual, relational baggage that I tend to carry around with me. I also like to create physical baggage as well. Yesterday, I cleaned out our pantry. I had been holding on to some crackers, thinking that we would serve them again. They were from a party in 2012. I felt like it was safe to say that any future party deserves new crackers at this point. Now that they're gone, I wonder why they didn't leave sooner. I hope that I feel the same way about the stuff I burned last night. I hope that it's in the garbage for real and not just hiding on some bottom shelf way in the back and I hope that I have space for God in the void that's left.


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