Lent? I’m glad you ashed!

Wednesday will be quite a red letter day for me. Before I attend The Passion with my youth group, I intend to go to an Ash Wednesday service nearby.

This will be the first time I’ve observed Ash Wednesday or Lent at all. In fact, until very recently, Lent was something I cleaned out of my dryer.

But I’ve read a little (admittedly very little) about it the past few days. And Ash Wednesday and Lent seem to me excellent traditions grounded in practices of the early church. (Now, not to be a killjoy, but Mardi Gras is another matter altogether. I don’t think the early church did that and I won’t be either, in case you were wondering.)

Like many Protestants, I used to have a negative attitude toward tradition. But I’m beginning to think many of our Reformist forebears went overboard in throwing out traditions that had the faintest scent of “Popery.� A lot of traditions of the Catholic and Anglican churches have their roots in the early church, are not unbiblical, contain wonderful Christian symbolism, and help focus worship. Plus, some of them are just fun.

Some Protestants past and present reject just about any tradition that wasn’t spelled out in the Bible. If I ever was one of them, I am no longer. Why I’ve changed, I really don’t know just yet. But for me, church traditions that don’t distract from or disobey God’s word are fine with me. Ones like Ash Wednesday and Lent that help focus on the importance of repentance and of what Jesus did for us are more than fine with me.

But now I still don’t think that Lent and other traditions are things that all “good Christians� do. If someone wants to do Lent, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine, too.

Another reason I’ll be observing Lent: I want to pray in a special way that God would use the Passion movie in people’s lives. I think it could have quite an impact, and I’m praying for that.