Ashes on My Forehead

i got ashes on my forehead
and i'm trying hard to learn
this dust that i have started from
is where i shall return
and i will follow out of love
'cause there is nothing i can earn
i got ashes on my forehead
and i'm trying hard to learn

Here we are, at the beginning of the 40-day journey of Lent. It is Ash Wednesday. We begin, this day, in solemn contemplation of our sinfulness and mortality by practicing the imposition of ashes on our foreheads. The sign of death prominently upon our brows. I have to wait until 5 PM tonight to get this physical reminder but, like death, it will come.

Every Ash Wednesday (and many other days), I get the lyrics of this song stuck in my head and I love it. How wonderful it is to have this musical reminder from Jonathan Rundman's Sound Theology to celebrate this day. Have a sample listen to Ashes or, better yet, splurge the $0.99 and download it from iTunes.