Today, after attending Ash Wednesday Mass, I stopped in my local Starbucks.

Every now and then the Starbucks staff has a “theme day”.  Today they were celebrating “fandom”, with each staff member dressing up in a way that highlights something that they are a fan of.

When I approached the counter, one of the staff noticing the ashes on my forehead remarked – “oh, here comes a fan of Jesus”.

I certainly took this as a compliment.

But it got me thinking.

Hopefully I don’t need ashes on my forehead for people to discern that I am a “fan” of Jesus. Hopefully I live in a way that shows that I am a “fan” of Jesus.   And not just a “fan” of Jesus, but a faithful disciple of Jesus – someone who abides by his words, and lives in imitation of Jesus.

And when you think about it – when you distill all the sermons, the doctrines, and the opinions – this really is the goal for all of us – that our attitudes, behaviors, and actions are informed by our faith in Christ, that our love of Jesus compels us to live our life modelled after his life, that our lives are characterized by love, compassion, tolerance, and forgiveness.

And of course this is not always easy.  We try, we stumble, we fall, we allow God to help us pick ourselves up, we try again.  We always try again.  And God is there for us each time.

And today – this first day of Lent – is a perfect time to start trying again.  Today, we take the words of the prophet Joel to heart – “even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart” (Joel 2:12).

Even now. No matter where we are in our lives. Even now.

And as we journey with Christ and with each other this Lent, we turn ourselves back to God, we allow God to help us pick ourselves up again, we allow God to help us discard anything that keeps us from him and from  living the life Jesus calls us to.

And with God’s grace working in us and through us, we will hear the world remark about each one of us – “oh, here comes a fan of Jesus”.

 

 

 

One response to “

  1. A very interesting and provocative connection!

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