Ash Wednesday: Pardon Our Dust

In January while I was preparing for a discussion at Retreat House on The Accommodation: the politics of race in an American City [Dallas] by Jim Shutze, I ran across this new book by Otis Mills, III: Dancing in the Darkness: Spiritual Lessons for Thriving in Turbulent Times. I first ordered it on Kindle. After the first chapter I knew I needed to get out the pencil and colors underline and write in the margins.

Why?

The titles of the spiritual practices ignited my heart. It is the next book that has not let me go. When I became aware of God's invitation for me to dive deep with these practices, I decided to use these for a Lenten practice. You are welcome to join me if you wish.

I recommend you get the book and grab a cup of black coffee. It deepens the experience.

Pardon Our Dust

Ash Wednesday, 2023

We begin with Chapter 7, "Pardon Our Dust: Meet Failings with Grace." Already there is something messy, starting in the middle instead of at the beginning. I feel challenged already to let go of what "I know" to be present to the discovery.

...We all need grace...while we have sacred potential, we are all fragile and imperfect.

Otis Mills, III, Dancing in the Dark, p. 85

Mills reminds us when buildings are under construction, we often put out a sign that says, "Pardon Our Dust." It makes us feel better that we are aware of the sawdust on the floor, the paint cloths draped around any furniture that could not be moved, curtains of plastic trying to contain the mess. Yet, despite our efforts to contain the mess, it escapes...on our shoes...in the air vents. Somehow a think layer of dust finds its way onto every windowsill and in every nook and cranny. Sigh.

Meet Failings with Grace

You are dust...and to dust you shall return. Qoheleth 3:20

As I recall, the imposition of ashes returned to my Presbyterian church arena when I was an adult. As a child I remember my Catholic friends coming to school with black smudges on their foreheads. That smudge of darkness marked Ash Wednesday for me. Dark. My not-so-fond memories of death and bleak I remembered it as their "dark ashes day." I wonder how it would have been different if I understood it as a "grace day."

As Ash Wednesday has re-emerged in regular practice for the Protestant liturgical year, I find it a refreshing way to enter into the Lenten season. Of course we begin with dust! Because life is messy. Because we tend to set aside imperfect things to deal with them at a later time. Because death and dying have become outcomes of our human inability to save life instead of being a grace of life. Yes, a grace of life.

We must begin with the invitation to see dust as a grace of life. I believe this to be the intention to the practice. What is dust for you? Dust can be as heavy as death, darkness, shadow, addiction or failure. Dust can be circumstance as difficult relationships, stuckness, discontent in a job or volunteer space. Dust is all around us. Whatever the dust may be, it is messy, and there is grace in it. To see the grace, we have to get our fingers in the dust and move it around.

Spiritual Practice Part One:

Set the Space:

As you enter into this prayer space, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance.  If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do.  Keep wrestling.  God is faithful to your journey.  Love and hope will emerge.  Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

• Find a place in your home or in nature where you are free from distraction.
• Let your breath be connected with the Breath of God.
• Invite into your awareness one are of dust in your life. If there is more than one, sit with them until one emerges as the dust you will sit with today. If you wish you can come back to the practice with others.
• Welcome the dust that has captured your attention.
• Does the dust have a name?
• Describe the dust. (color, texture, smell, etc.)
• What does the dust represent for you today?
• Be present to the dust, invite it to speak.
• Listen to the dust as if you are listening to a hurting child.
• Notice God is listening with you and gazing upon you and the dust with loving kindness.
• Ask God to reveal grace in the dust.
• What new thing is God inviting you to see today?
• What is your work to do, if any?
• Embrace the discovery.
• Give thanks to God noticing any freedom that comes with the discovery.
• Pause to linger with grace and freedom.
• Welcome day of grace.

Spiritual Practice Part Two

• Invite into your awareness to an area of dust in the life/lives of your Black brothers and sisters. If there is more than one, sit with them until one emerges as the dust you will sit with today. If you wish you can come back to the practice with others.
• Welcome the dust that has captured your attention.
• Does the dust have a name?
• Describe the dust. (color, texture, smell, etc.)
• What does the dust represent for you today?
• Be present to the dust, invite it to speak.
• Listen to the dust as if you are listening to a hurting child.
• Notice God is listening with you and gazing upon you and the dust with loving kindness.
• Ask God to reveal grace in the dust.
• What new thing is God inviting you to see today?
• What is your work to do, if any?
• Embrace the discovery.
• How do you desire to respond?
• Give thanks to God noticing any freedom or call to action that comes with the discovery.
• Pause to linger with grace and freedom.
• Welcome day of grace.

If you with to share your experience, reply below:

I pray these practices will be a gift and blessing to you. I have much to learn from my Black brothers and sisters. This study is helping me see the gift of spiritual practices born in desolation. They are my midwives as I labor with these spiritual practices. I have deep respect for the pain they have endured and the call to non-violence that clothes them with Christ.

I can imaging a world filled with Peace. Let it begin with me.