As the Lenten season approaches, one of the most defining moments is Ash Wednesday. Yes, that moment you go to mass, right between your work day; actually, you ask for an hour or two extra from work to join mass.

The result is a cross across your forehead.

To the outside world, you look like you’re marked. You are walking around in your smart-casual outfit, looking very professional, but on your forehead, a gray cross. It means so much to you. Why, you ask. This signifies the trials Jesus Christ faced as He prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for humanity.

Now, the outside world may not really understand the significance of this. But, to you, this explains the life you want to begin. It is a renewal of your perspective in the Catholic Church and an even deeper immersion into the kind of person you want to be. I mean, Jesus did lay His life for us, and He went through trials and temptations that we go through. In the end, He conquered.

---

The Audit of the Soul

So, for us, or me, personally, this is an opportunity to revisit my lifestyle and my relationship with God. It speaks to my dreams, goals, and current life objectives. As I think about this dynamic, I am inclined to consider how we can juggle this Lenten season and mark down Ash Wednesday as a critical moment in our lives, personally or professionally.

For one, Ash Wednesday demands that we audit our lives. Who are you as a person? Who are you as a Christian? Who are you as a father, mother, daughter, or son? Or whatever else adjective you can align yourself with.

The Danger of a Single Story

That said, we live in diverse dynamics. I can reference my favourite author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who spoke about “the danger of a single story.” When we view a colleague only as a ‘boss’ or a ‘competitor,’ that is a single story. Lent challenges us to see them as a child of God, complex, struggling, and human.

I will break it down in simple terms: Life has so many angles that force us to look outside the box of our own experience. If you succeed, you can think of life outside of your personality, lifestyle, and worldview.

Think of your friend, partner, colleague, business associate, fellow Christian, and even strangers. What are they going through in life? What is their relationship with God, themselves, and others? Surely, they are not born of a single spectrum of thought!

No. They are involved in multiple relationships with people, lifestyles, goals, and ambitions, and just the fact that they are alive, they want to have a balance of happiness, comfort, and connection with God.

That is the purpose of this Lenten season, beginning from Ash Wednesday. You think about where you have been, where you are, and where you are going. Then, think about what Jesus went through this coming Lent season. How can we make His trials and temptations make sense?

Balancing the Equation

That thought immediately underscores how the devil tried him for 40 days! We are called upon to walk this path with Jesus. Whether it is fasting, taking care of the sick, the needy, or even facilitating a better lifestyle for ourselves as we walk in the path of God, it is our responsibility to understand why that gray cross smudged on our foreheads signifies our desire to follow in the path of Jesus, who sacrificed everything for us.

As a professional navigating this path, I admit that this can be difficult. With our personal and professional struggles, it is always a balancing act (read: responsibilities) that demands so much from us.

Yet this is how we ensure that, come Easter, when Jesus resurrects and proves His triumph over death and promises us eternal salvation, we are right there with Him. It doesn’t take much complexity to understand that this is the time to reconfigure our lives, repent, and chart a new path that ensures we are obeying the Lord’s commandments.

No. It really does not.

It means reconsidering how you interact with your colleagues, friends, family, clergy, and (as I mentioned) strangers.

• Are you kinder?
• Are you more honest?
• Are you more confident in the Lord?
• Do you want to prevail in times of darkness and temptations?

I can relate to the last question because it impacts me most. Temptations come. The darkness comes. Here, you are convinced that you are “not enough” or that you are not privileged in the eyes of God. Maybe even that you are not on the track to see His resurrection and to follow His path to salvation.

Do not indulge in such thoughts!

That is what I tell myself anyway.

I read this verse to guide me:

Yet even now—oracle of the LORD—return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God, For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment. – Joel 2:12-13

As the scripture says, you must always think of the glory and favor that God brings in our human lives.

When I wash the cross off tonight, the mark will be gone, but the audit remains.