brian shivers

It begins in long nights and short days. It begins with ashes and quiet reminders of mortality. It doesn’t end there. Our story continues through lengthening daylight, blossoming trees, blooming flowers, and a promise of life breaking in yet again. -bshivers

Be honest with yourself about your frailty. There is no need to pretend. You know the truth. And you are loved right there in the fullness of you. Remember you are dust. And to dust you will return. -bshivers

In the Christian calendar, the season we call Lent begins with Ashes.  This Wednesday, throughout the world many Christians will hear the words "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" as they are marked with the sign of the cross on their forehead with ashes (even in the midst of a pandemic, this tradition will continue in creative ways). These ashes serve as a reminder of human frailty and brokenness, of the many reasons we have for lament and the ways in which we have failed one another, of the weight of our grief and the depth of our sorrow. These ashes mark not only our bodies but also the beginning of a 40-day journey called Lent. For those who make this journey, it will take us into the complexity of what it means to be human, the struggle of life itself, the challenge of faith, and the presence of God throughout it all.  After a year of immeasurable loss, physical distance from those we love, fear of a virus we cannot see, and anxiety over what might...

Spoken word poem on Ash Wednesday 2017. I Need These Ashes Stanza 1: Humanity Tonight, I need these ashes… I need them in a way I have never needed them before. Sure, I wish I could move directly quickly to celebration, to resurrection without these forty days; these heavy forty days. But tonight, I need these ashes for desiring anything else would deny the essence of my humanity. My humanity that gritty existence formed from clay filled with the breath of the divine. Humus - is the “dirt” at my root Adamah - is the very “ground” from which I came. It is from the earth that I am formed; it is to this earth that I shall return. Often I pretend as if I am something more; Often I live as if I am so much less than this human form. But I have been called to bear the weight of this flesh. These ashes remind me that I have been marked eternally claimed by the One in whose Image I have been made. Tonight, I need these ashes to remind me of ...