ash wednesday

ash wednesday was yesterday and we just happened to move our lifegroup (church small group) to wednesday nights starting this week. as you probably know, i'm drawn to the more liturgical / episcopal / catholic style of worship even though i've never really attended that kind of church (with the exception of senior year in college when i went to the episcopal 8am service, the baptist church for sunday school with the college group, and the nazarene church for worship service. yeah, i was a weirdo, but i really enjoyed it).

anywho, i prayed most of the day and consulted a couple of confidantes about how to handle our lifegroup time - go all out with a full ash wednesday service, just explain the significance of the day, or somewhere in between. our backgrounds are varied and i didn't know how the response would be. in the end, i decided to ask them to indulge me in a full service. i made my own ashes, but then i added too much oil and it turned to sludge (the how-to also said to add the oil right before and i added it way too early) so we didn't end up using it. the whole thing turned out really well and everyone responded well to the readings and our prayers. i'm thankful for their encouragement and i'm glad i followed the leading of the Spirit to go through with it. this writing really helped me to make the final decision to go through with the service. thanks to my online acquaintance kyle.