The Gift of Life: Reflections on Ash Wednesday

Summary

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The Collage Podcast

Episode: The Gift of Life: Reflections on Ash Wednesday

Host: Feed My Sheep
Guest: Nancy Glover
Date: February 26, 2026

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Overview

This Ash Wednesday episode of The Collage Podcast is a reflective and sincere discussion about the themes of mortality, the gift of life, and the journey of Lent. Host Feed My Sheep and guest Nancy Glover explore what it means to confront our finiteness, live with intention, and embrace each day as a precious opportunity. Their conversation is rooted in Christian faith traditions, but their insights and stories reach toward a universal human experience: the need to find meaning and purpose while we have the chance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ash Wednesday & The Meaning of Lent

• (02:54) Nancy explains Ash Wednesday as the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period before Easter.
  • "Today marks the first day of the season of Lent for us...we ponder and think about the sacrifice of Jesus and his resurrection. But we're preparing ourselves for that celebration by a practice of fasting, almsgiving and prayer." (Nancy, 02:54)
• Lent is modeled after Jesus’s 40 days in the desert and is intended to foster self-awareness and spiritual growth through sacrifice and service.
• The ritual of ashes ("From dust you were created and to dust you will return" [04:18]) reminds participants of their mortality.

2. Mortality as a Starting Point for Transformation

• Discussing why Lent begins by confronting death and finiteness.
  • "Our lives are...not something that we can have a redo. We can't push the undo button...this is a precious gift that we've been given and it's important for us to understand that and to remember that." (Nancy, 06:27)
• Host reflects on how recognizing mortality encourages gratitude and purposeful living.

3. The Illusion of Immortality in Youth & Adulthood

• The hosts candidly recall how, as teenagers and young adults, they felt "indestructible," often putting off what matters because time seemed limitless.
  • "18 year olds pretty sure nothing's going to happen to them...I think there's a possibility...that I might not live forever." (Host, 10:00, 12:07)
• Only later in life does mortality become more tangible, prompting deeper reflection and changes in priorities.

4. Living with Mortality in View

• Host shares personal practice: keeps his own casket in the garage as a daily reminder of mortality.
  • "I have my own casket that is in my garage. I use it as a shelf now...That box is not sitting in one of the funeral homes around here. I'm still alive." (Host, 14:46 – 15:19)
• Encouraged to use this awareness not for recklessness, but for appreciating each day as a gift.
• Notable quote:
  • "The only thing I know for certain is I'm still alive." (Host, 15:10)

5. Near-Death Experiences & Changing How We Live

• Nancy shares stories of friends and relatives who survived accidents or were diagnosed with terminal illness, observing that afterward, they didn’t live the same way.
  • "Neither one of those people lived the same after that turning point." (Nancy, 20:56)
• People who fully appreciate their mortality reconcile relationships, celebrate daily life, and make the most of their remaining time.

6. The Unpredictable Timeline of Life

• Story of Nancy’s uncle: healthy one week, dead the next after a sudden diagnosis, prompting a discussion on how easily we can take time for granted.
  • "Monday, he doesn't wake up...Didn't have a year, even though the year was a big blow." (Host, 25:56)
• Reiterates that death isn't something to be feared, but understood as inseparable from living.
• "Death and life must be so intertwined together that they're almost like one." (Host, 27:10)

7. Parallel Struggles: Addiction, Homelessness, and Existential Fog

• Nancy describes meeting people in deep addiction and homelessness, whose daily lives are a blur of survival—caught between not living fully and not being ready to die.
  • "He was living in a drainage ditch, but the trailer park he came from...was worse than living in the drainage ditch." (Nancy, 31:00)
• The hosts challenge listeners to reflect on how many of us live similarly in a gray space, going through the motions without truly embracing the life we have.
  • "We wake up going, oh, crap, Got to do stuff today...Let me get through today." (Host, 37:22)
• Urges listeners to use Lent as a reminder to break out of numb routine and engage with gratitude and intentionality.

8. Invitation to Reconcile and Leave an Imprint

• When faced with limited time, relationships and meaningful actions take priority.
  • "The desire to leave an imprint on this Earth so it knows that you existed...it increases." (Host, 40:39)
• Even small acts of reconciliation and kindness matter—our impact, no matter how small, counts.

9. The Universal Challenge: Cherishing Each Day

• Two core unchangeable truths: "You were born and you will die."
• The "gray area" between birth and death is where our choices and awareness matter most.
• "My life is worth living, and I'm valuable enough...that I can have an impact here on Earth." (Host, 43:06)
• The episode closes with a call to live in the present, embracing each day as a gift—not putting off making amends or finding peace.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Ash Wednesday’s ritual:
  • “From dust you were created and to dust you will return.” (Priest’s blessing, 04:18)
• On the purpose of embracing mortality:
  • “It is a precious gift that we’ve been given and it’s important for us to understand that and to remember that.” (Nancy, 06:27)
• On surviving trauma or a terminal diagnosis:
  • “Neither one of those people lived the same after that turning point.” (Nancy, 20:56)
• On the entanglement of life and death:
  • “Living and dying are the same organism... They’re not separate. They are connected.” (Host, 27:10)
• On how we often live:
  • “We wake up going, oh, crap, got to do stuff today... Let me get through today.” (Host, 37:22)
• On seizing the day:
  • “Life is not something to be endured, is not a gray fog, nastiness of muck that we just got to wander through. It is a beautiful picture that God is painting in front of us—days to embrace and to enjoy.” (Host, 45:53)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:54 – Nancy explains Ash Wednesday and Lent
• 04:18 – Rite of ashes and reminder of mortality
• 12:07 – Realization in mid-life of mortality’s reality
• 14:46–15:19 – The host’s personal casket and the daily reminder to live
• 20:56 – Stories of friends/relatives with life-altering experiences
• 25:56 – Story of sudden loss in the family
• 27:10 – Philosophical view: death and life as intertwined
• 31:00 – Story of young man in a drainage ditch
• 37:22 – Reflection on the routine and numbness of daily life
• 40:39 – On the desire to leave a meaningful imprint
• 43:06 – On the value of life and possibility for change
• 45:53 – Call to embrace each day with gratitude and awareness

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Summary – The Gift of Life

This episode is a heartfelt, grounded meditation on Ash Wednesday’s lessons: mortality, transformation, and the sacredness of the everyday. Feed My Sheep and Nancy Glover invite listeners to move past numb survival, face the reality of finitude, and choose to live with gratitude, intentionality, and hope. The stories shared—from personal reminders of death, to encounters with addiction, to family loss—are delivered honestly and without judgment, encouraging everyone to cherish their days and strive to leave a positive mark on the world, however big or small.

Takeaway:
Embrace today as a gift, accept life’s limits, and focus on making meaning with the time you have. Whether in faith or simply in lived experience, facing mortality can be the start of living deeply, loving wholly, and repairing what matters most.

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Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Hey, we want to welcome you to another edition of the Collage Podcast. Happy to have you all here with us today. And. And when we are doing this, it is actually here on our calendar. It is Ash Wednesday. Okay? So to not get off in the weeds, and not that there's weeds if we're talking about faith matters, but so if you're out there and you're going, what in the world is Ash Wednesday? Okay, so we won't go down because we just did a discussion on explaining in the church calendar what Ash Wednesday is and Lent is and. And such like that. So I do encourage you to go look at that. But Ash Wednesday is the day that we're recording this podcast. Doesn't matter when you're listening to it. And so it lends itself to an interesting discussion point that we're going to go in today. We're going to make it nice and easy. I got Nancy here with with us today. So you want to say hello, Nancy,

[B]

good morning or afternoon or whenever it is that you're listening to this.

[A]

Very nice, Very nice. And what's cool on this is where we're going to go is, Nancy, what are we going to talk about today?

[B]

I have no idea.

[A]

She does not. There's a lot of things on the table that we could discuss today. So just like y', all, I'm going to, I'm going to present a question, and you're going to ponder in your head, and Nancy's going to ponder in her head, and we're going to talk about this on Ash Wednesday, and it'll make sense. You go, ah, maybe I can see why they talked about that today. Okay, so first question is, and this is not the question, but the question just to give us some background to kind of catch everybody up. So, Nancy, tell us Ash Wednesday, the basic premise. Nancy's going to go to a church service today that celebrates. They're going to do a church service today for Ash Wednesday. Okay, not saying you have to go to one or don't go to one, but she is going to go to one. There's going to be. There are going to be some in the area that are doing Ash Wednesday services. Some churches are not. So it's kind of funny that way. But, Nancy, the premise. Just give me the. Oh, not the every second of the service, but the premise and the overriding theme of tonight's church service for you and your community of faith is what?

[B]

So today marks the first day of the season of Lent for us, and that is a 40 day period prior to Easter, Resurrection Sunday, that we ponder and think about the sacrifice of Jesus and his resurrection. But we're preparing ourselves for that celebration by a practice of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. And for the people that, that I go to church with, we will focus on making some sort of sacrifice throughout the entire 40 day period. And it's sort of modeled off of Jesus's time in the desert that he spent fasting.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Before his ministry.

[A]

So, premise. Okay, what are they going to tell you when you go before? So that she would have a priest and a priest. You're going to go before the priest. And a nutshell. Okay, so just the single sentence. They're going to put ashes on her forehead. And in theory the ashes came from the palm leaves from the year before or the church service, but it's recognition of this. And they're going to put these ashes on your head and they're going to say what?

[B]

From dust you were created and to dust you will return.

[A]

Okay, and that is supposed to remind us of what?

[B]

Our mortality.

[A]

Okay, there we go.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. So we're not skipping the fasting, we're not skipping the alms giving, we're not skipping all of this other stuff.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's not just stuff because we're doing a Lent experience if you're not part of that wherever. But it's, it's something to be part of a proactive approach of being part of this journey. Okay. And so what we're going to look at today in this deal seems to be a theme for today is death, mortality.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. So it's interesting to me that we start this journey of, lack of a better term, of self awareness, of coming to this place we're supposed to go to. This journey of by the time we come and arrive at Egypt, Easter, that we would have gone through some difficult deals and we know more about ourselves and we're closer to our faith and all of this stuff that's going to occur, Correct?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And in theory, the Lent experience makes us focus less on ourselves. That is, I do have to sacrifice something. I mean, I got to give stuff up that's, that is about me. But it's more of an attempt to become more outward focused, looking more toward God, looking more towards others, thinking less about myself, sacrificing those things that I want to do, I don't do. I don't want to read or find time to pray as much. But I'm called to looking outside of myself to bring more awareness to oneself.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay. Why do you think it starts with this recognition of I'm going to die?

[B]

I think it's something that is important in a faith journey to understand that this isn't the final, this is not your final stop along the way. Like there is, there is another life after this one. At least that's what we believe as Christians and that we need to have an eye on that next life while we're still in this one. Not that we could, you know, necessarily buy our way into the next life or you know, work our way into it or anything like that, but more of that. This is a, this is a, this is something we, we can't do over. Like our lives are, are not something that we can have a redo. We can't push the undo button and, you know, redo it. That this is, this is a precious gift that we've been given and it's important for us to understand that and to remember that.

[A]

Okay. For sure. So then let me ask you, why is it of utmost importance before you're going to start a journey like this to understand that life is a precious gift and that we will pass away? Why is that key?

[B]

Well, I think if you don't realize that, if you don't recognize that, then you can take things for granted.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

You go through your life just sort of, you know, overlooking all of the different treasures that you have that are given to you every day, the things that God brings to you every day and just not see them.

[A]

Agreed? Yeah, agreed. So like let's just, let's just pick on different stages of our lives.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

Okay. I want to pick on you because I'm asking questions. So we're going to pick on you. Okay. Or anybody out there. Okay. 17 year old, 16 year old, 16 year old version of Nancy or of Jeff or of Susie Smith. Who's listening to this? Okay. That 16 year old version of you truly grasp the concept that this is a precious gift. And guess what? I'm not going to live forever. No, not at all. Did they?

[B]

No. I think 16 year old Nancy was pretty self absorbed and interested in getting a driver's license and I thought I would live forever.

[A]

Agreed.

[B]

Indestructible.

[A]

Indestructible. Indestructible. And 16 year olds. No, let's say 18 year olds because they now. So 18 year olds. 16 year olds. Okay. 18, indestructible. Nothing's going to happen to me and I'm going to live forever. Yeah, pretty much. It's what you grasp.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Okay. That's why the Military. That's why we pick 18 year olds that dude or dude or dudette, okay. You get them to line up on the front line, even though I know war is different now. And they're sitting behind computer screens and we fly drones and all this and that, whatever. But in the day you get them to sign up because you're 18, okay, guess what? 18 year olds pretty sure nothing's going to happen to them. And you ask them to do this task as an older person and they're pretty sure that, well, yeah, 10,000 people are going to die out of 10,001 that are on the troops. But it won't be me. Yeah, I'll be the one that makes it. I'll be just fine. I'll go do this because nothing's going to happen to me. And they live accordingly. And sometimes we see in our world all 18 year olds do not make it to 19. There's passing, but out of that life is lived in such a way of, huh, I do what I'm going to do because I got forever to do this. Okay. That mentality, is that a great place to start a true transformational journey of man. I really would like to do things differently. You're going to start a journey that way. If you think that I've got forever to do this.

[B]

No, no. Yeah, no.

[A]

Okay, now I'll do that stuff later because you've got forever. Okay. 20s, similar mindset. Maybe not forever then. But you sure don't think you're going away anywhere, right? You know, because you got too many other things in their infancy. I've got a baby, I'm not going anywhere because I got to raise this. I've got this new job and in 20 years I'm going to be this at the job. I'm not going anywhere. Okay, so we have all this time, 30 still in that 40, whatever. Okay. But there comes a point in time in life, okay, maybe we haven't gotten there yet, maybe we're getting there or whatever, that all of a sudden you realize, I think there's a possibility. I'm not certain of it, but I think there's a possibility that I might not live forever.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And all of a sudden it starts clicking in your head, you know what, I might not live forever. And then you start thinking, oh man, crud. People are going to look at the body of work that my life has been in the past, okay. And that's how they're going to really look and see whether my life had value or not. And I don't have unlimited time to do things. Like, I don't have forever, you know, Like, I'm of an age, okay? So I'm. Whatever I. Whatever year we are, we're in 26.

[B]

26.

[A]

Okay? We're in 26. So that makes me 56. I have to look at the last number of the year that tells me what number I am. So I am 56. And it is pretty decently safe for me to assume that I shouldn't be planning for things that I'm going to do 50 years from now.

[B]

Yeah. Safe assumption.

[A]

Pretty decently safe assumption. I don't think I'm going to be 106. Possible there is people that live to be 106, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do that. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to even be 40 years from now. Then I'm also. You start going, man, I don't even know 30 years from now. I don't even know 20 years from now. Like to think 10 years from now. Okay, so your mindset changes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You start embracing your mortality. You know what? Dang. I'm gonna die. Which now for me in this discussion, okay? So this, for me out there, for y' all listening, and for everybody here and even for Nancy and for us, I don't think it's a horrible thing to truly embrace the fact that you're going to die. I don't think it's bad. Okay. As a matter of fact, I will put it out there. And not that it's anything. Neither here nor there. Okay? People who know me know this. I have my own casket that is in my garage. I use it as a shelf now, and it has things in it, okay. That will be taken out when I die. And then, I mean, they're going to put me in this box. I look at it every day. Okay. Why would I do that, Nancy Glover? Why would I have a casket in a garage that I look at every

[B]

day to remind you to celebrate today, okay? You woke up this morning, you took a breath.

[A]

I ain't in the box.

[B]

Not in the box. Yeah.

[A]

Okay? If I get up and I look at that box and it's still got shelves in it and it's still got room for things to go in that box, guess what? I know. The only thing I know for certain is I'm still alive.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

There's still shelves in that casket. They haven't taken them out. That box is not sitting in one of the funeral homes around here. I'm still Alive.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And there's still stuff that needs to be put in their thing. And so when I'm saying stuff, it's not like I don't have money in there. Guess what? There ain't one thing of money that's going to go in that box with me. Because look, I don't have any, okay? There's not my truck keys sitting there. Who cares? Insignificant trinkets of memories of moments that have occurred, okay? That's the life that's going in that box. This corpse that will be me dead. That's the thing that's going to get buried for the worms to eat on. Yeah, the life was the things that were in that box. The corpse is just a corpse. Okay? So then out of that, so all that weirdness to come to, we're embracing this fact today in the Christian journey, okay? Twofold. We're not going to get way off into spirituality in that we do embrace in the Easter, in the Easter period that death is not the final sentence in any of our stories. There is this thing called eternity that we all face and we all get to embrace whether we like it or not. But we all go into this place and eternity is all time. Life is finite, right? And then Easter is all about. Jesus came and he conquered that death is no longer the final barrier, right? So out of that, all of that to come to, and then we got a casket and we got to this. I have a shelf of death that's in my office, okay? So every day when I leave the office, these are little items that I look at all throughout the day, okay? Simply to remind me, okay, moment by moment that we are not promised anything more than this moment at hand. I don't live recklessly into going, woo hoo. Spend every bit of my money because I don't know, I may be dead tomorrow. Charge up my credit cards, okay? Because no way they can collect on me because I might be dead tomorrow. That's absolute absurdity. That's not what this is about.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Okay, so all that, we're going to circle back and then you're going to interject here, okay? In a previous life, I worked at a church and got to spend too many. But some opportunities with people who had, lack of a better term, near death experiences, car wreck, they're an icu, they're in a coma. They come out of it. They all the doctors and people, or maybe not even necessarily the doctors, but family members and such like that, when the person comes out of it, they're going to say, oh my Gosh, you should have died. Or you were so close to death. Or we get this, you've got cancer and you're not going to live. And somehow a miracle or whatever you want to term comes and happens and you overcome that and you're no longer going to die. Or okay, let's pretend this. In that same medical realm, you do get the bad diagnosis. You're sitting with a doctor and the doctor comes to you and goes, hey, I'll just pick on me. Jeff, by the way, your head is giving you a lot of issues. And because my head is, I'm having all some headaches and such like that. Not medical on that, but. So the doctor comes and he says, hey, I don't know how to tell you this, but, okay, you have. Blah, blah. You've got this growth in your head, or you got this and no way for us to treat it. And you only have, according to our information and understanding, maybe only six more months left to your life. Okay, I got that. That's the diagnosis. Or we got twofold. Okay, so. Or I've got that. The diagnosis comes and says, jeff, you only got six months to live. Okay, so I'm just picking on me. I'm gonna ask you a question. So, Jeff, you got six months to live, or B, Jeff just recovers from an accident and I was. I might even have died on the table. You were dead and we brought you back to life. Okay, so you're now back alive. Okay. Do you think I go and live the. Either one of those? I get a diagnosis that I have medically, maybe only five months left to live, or B, I just have recovered and I'm now alive and I'm on borrowed time? Do you think I live my life the exact same?

[B]

No. I've had friends that have gone through both of those things. One that had bone cancer and it, I think, lingered with her for about two years, and then she ultimately passed away from it.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And then I've also had friends who have been in. Well, actually a relative in a motorcycle accident that almost took his life. Actually, he did die and was brought back to life, so had sort of a second chance at things. Neither one of those people lived the same after that turning point.

[A]

Did they tend to take life less seriously or more seriously? Is that a word that I would use there? How did they live?

[B]

I would say not necessarily the seriousness of it as much as it was just being thankful for every moment that they had agree and taking full advantage of it. So reconciling with people that they had broken relationships with or, you know, looking at life as something to be celebrated every day, instead of which really, for the person that had the terminal illness, you could take that either direction. Like, you could either get really bitter about it or look at it as, you know. Okay, I know where I'm at with, with this timeline of mine, you know, because the rest of us, we just, you know, are kind of. It's an unknown when we're going to pass away, but they know essentially what the timeline is and so they have this insight into that and can take full advantage of the time that they have.

[A]

Okay, great. And we can't ask, we can't speak for everybody, but like, okay, there is some, some logistical. I don't know if that would be the right word. There is some things that, okay, if you just find out that I'm going to pass away in six months.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. There is some, some things that you need to do earthly wise to make sure that your family and you got. There's some logistics. Okay, I need to make sure that the house is going to be able to go to my family. I want to make sure that my resources are set in place so everything is set. So when I go, like the government can't come and do whatever they're going to do. And so. But there's a couple steps that you'd go, okay, I gotta, I gotta make sure that these things are taken care of. And I've signed the paperwork. My will is exactly how it needs to be so the things can go. My order, my affairs are in order. So that's one afternoon, right. Of nuts and bolts, of. Okay, my stuff's in order.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay. So then I'm going to ask. So then Nancy or whatever. So Susie Smith. So we're not picking on you, Susie Smith, she's going to pass away in six months. Okay. And six months isn't. They said within six months. And it generally is going to work out. You don't know that six months, but you generally, people would work still under that assumption. Whoo. Okay, I got six months to live. Okay. Doesn't always work that way. Okay. So I saw my uncle. He had liver cancer or something like that. Wasn't even sick. Wasn't even sick, but went in because he thought he had the flu. They did some tests on him and they realized he had this liver or kidney or whatever cancer is, whatever that I don't keep up with medical stuff. But I remember that was on a Thursday he went in. Friday they realized he had cancer. Saturday they Talked to the family. He wasn't sick. This guy was not ill. Saturday, they talked to us and said, hey, y' all need to figure out some stuff, okay? Because he's going to go on to hospice. He's not going to. He's not going to live. Okay. So we called, and he wasn't sick. Still thought he had just the flu. Like, he was. He was all right. So we called an attorney that I happen to know in town, and he came to the hospital that day as a favor and did all the will and all that kind of stuff to make sure everything was in place as it should be on. On Saturday. Sunday, still fine. Like, decently. He's in a hospital, so you ain't all that great, but still fine. Okay. Looking at the doctor's timelines. Yeah, you know, man, I would think. Are you wanting to do treatment? Because that may extend it for three or four months. Okay. You're not going to do treatment. You probably have one year left. Okay. So we got a year. That's Sunday. So we got a year. Gonna go in hospice. We need to figure out this. Got the details of life figured out. So he's got a year to figure things out. Okay. And we're gonna go down this path. Monday, he doesn't wake up.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Really. Monday, he doesn't get up. Didn't have a year, even though the year was a big blow. Oh, my gosh. I only got a year left to live.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. And again, I cannot stress enough. Like, obviously he was not well or he would not have been in the hospital. I get. He did have cancer. Even on that Sunday, he thought he had a year. Okay. Bad blow. But he had a year to get things in order to do things. Didn't wake up Monday. Okay. All of that, we're going to circle back to. This isn't morbid. So this topic is not sad or morbid or depressing to me.

[B]

You know, death is part of life.

[A]

Death is part of life. Like, so we're called to look at this thing that we're in. And I'm one. Death and life must be so intertwined together that they're almost like one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so they're not separate. They are connected. Living and dying are the same organism. And I would. They're different parts of it, but they're so intertwined. And so, like, you would look in. In our emotional spectrum, they would say love and hate come from the same exact. Yeah, they're very different on the surface. You look at them, they're complete polar opposites but they're really the same. They're so intertwined together. You know, you can't truly hate something unless you truly love something. And then out of this misguided love that turns into this hate and then this thing gets become warped. But they're so intertwined.

[B]

Yeah. Okay.

[A]

So all of that and I'm not saying anything other than today. The church, God himself is asking us today. Okay. And granted. So like, whatever. I'll take the discussions of, ah, you know that person who just got the six month diagnosis that first week, they're knocking it out of the park of how sacred life is. And then it's so easy to get caught back into the patterns and then you assume this or this or this. Okay, okay. So this Nancy Glover. So all of that tie into this simple deal and then we're going to get on with it. We went or Nancy went and got to see some stuff in some homeless camps of people that are in some, sure enough home, horrible addiction places.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Doing drugs. Not that there's ever any level of drugs that are good, but unbelievable amount of drugs and such with this. I don't know. But the. Whatever. There's so much trauma in this world, so much hate. Okay. But them. One day turns into another, that turns into another. That turns into another.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

It's a blur. I mean, and then the task at hand, so many is just trying to ease the hurt to make it through another day, to get through another day, to get through another day. Just get them done. And using substances. I just want to get this over with. Not ready to die. Really don't want to die because I'm not sure about that. Don't want to live either.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. How easy is it for us? We saw that. So tell me, what does that look like that people are living in this gray area in between of they're not really living.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

Okay. I'm not judging their lives, but do it. They're just not really living and they're speeding up the process of death, but they're not really truly embracing the fact that they're going to die either.

[B]

Right. I think the. The last one that we saw asked. We asked him for his address and he said that he lives in a trailer park and nearby where he was in a drainage ditch. Living in a. In a drainage ditch with heroin addiction. And he said it's worse than this.

[A]

It's worse than this.

[B]

The trailer park is worse than this. So you think that he was. He was living in a drainage ditch, but the trailer park he Came from the address that he gave us was at a trailer park that he said was worse than living in the drainage ditch. You think about it from that perspective. Like, how does. How does a young man. And he. I don't know how old he was. He didn't give us his age, but I would say he was probably in his 20s.

[A]

Fair.

[B]

So a young person like that that has a home life that is so bad that he feels like moving to the. To the drainage ditch down the street with. He didn't have any shoes on. He had open sores literally all over his body. That. And I don't want to be too gross, but that his clothes had stuck to. To the point where he was writhing in pain, just trying to.

[A]

The wounds had allow us to help

[B]

him with his wounds.

[A]

The shirt and his pants.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And all of this stuff had become within the scab of these wounds.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

To have a home life that is so bad that that seems better is something that I can't even fathom. So then when you look at it that way, what really is there to live for?

[A]

Okay.

[B]

How do you get out of. I guess I'll say bed. I don't know what he sleeps in or how he sleeps, but how do you get up in the morning and see any sort of possibility in your life?

[A]

Okay, so ready? So we're not picking on him.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I will say this. The reason the season starts right at this moment. The last thing of the church service today is somebody will say to you. They're going to say this, Jeff. They're going to. This may not make sense to you out there, but they're going to say, jeff, from dust you were made. Because in the Christian faith there is a belief that man was created from the dust of the earth, that God created man. So that's in reference to that. From dust you were made. Okay. That you were just created out of this nothingness, that you were made that way. And it says this. And from dust you shall return, meaning you will die. We bury bodies in the ground.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

In the dirt. Okay. That's where you're going to go. That is your story. That is everybody's story. The person that is behind you, it may be Bobby Sue. Bobby sue was made from the dirt, and she's going to get buried in the dirt.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So in it, it is easy for us. So the church. So we say on this that God himself. This is when this journey starts. A journey of self transformation, a journey of sacrifice, a journey of looking towards others, a journey of trying to make the world into what it's supposed to be.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It must begin at this stage of acknowledging I am truly dead.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm going back in this box. But you know what? I. I didn't get that sentence today. I'm still alive. Okay. So then out of it. But the beauty of it is that's kind of an encouragement, and it's kind of this, and then whatever I get, I don't know where you're at out there listening this on your faith journey, think this is this random, you know, roulette wheel of events. And then wherever this little magic dice lands or whatever, maybe there is no magic dice and everything is just, whew. And it. Either way, either way, I promise you, wherever anybody is in their faith journey, I don't care. At the end of the day, if you say, I hate God, I love God, I think there is no God. If you find out that you have limited time left on earth, I promise you, you do not live the exact same way that you are living today.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Period. We can look at the heroin addicts that we're not picking on them that we got to see because it is to the nth most scale of going, why the heck do they even get up? And they don't want to. Okay. So we look at that, and then we can say this sentence and to go, why do they even get up? And then in the course of the day, all they're trying to do is figure out, how do I get through this stinking day? Okay. And then. Then the process, theirs is misguided and going, okay, I just got to go over to that intersection over by the Lowe's and hold my sign up because I'm going to get enough money to get some heroin and then that I can get injected that 11 that's going to make it to this evening. And then I just got to prostitute myself out this evening. And then I'm going to make enough to make it through the night, and then I'll do it again tomorrow. And you look and go, what a terrible existence. Correct.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Let me ask you to a very different scale, and I'll say it to everybody out there who's listening. I challenge. I'm not so sure we live much off of that scale.

[B]

Oh, definitely.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We wake up going, oh, crap, Got to do stuff today. We really do.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. And then let's put the mechanisms in place that help me just make it through this day and feel as little as I possibly can today and just get through this. Do it, good at it, whatever I got. I mean, I got to work, I got to do this. I got to do these things. Let me get through today. Let me do the things at hand just to make it through this day. And then when I get home, what do I try to do? I try to do the things. Maybe they're positive things. Generally, they tend to be negative things to help me forget about the day that I just had so I can go to sleep and do it all over again. We look at others and we go, oh, my gosh, there's no way to live. We don't tend to look at ourselves and to go, oh, my gosh, that's no way to live. This season that we are in today is about this truth. For us to truly live as we are supposed to live, I believe you must have complete clarity in this understanding that life is not an infinite process that goes on forever and ever. It is a gift. A day is a gift to be cherished. And we live in such a way because that's when things occur. I guarantee. I can't guarantee it, but I would like to believe, okay. If I find out, hey, Jeff, you only got this amount of time to live. The things that I am focusing on, I bet you my list looks very different than the list I carry around and write each day.

[B]

I would say the same for me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And the relationships that need to be reconciled are not put off infinitely until, oh, I'm at their wake or whatever and going, dang, man, I wish. I know. I guarantee it. Reconciliation in relationships, it occurs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Reconciliation and understanding within my own heart occurs. Okay. And then a desire to leave an imprint on the earth, even if it's microscopic, because I'm not going to get into, oh, you're one in a. There's a gajillion, bajillion quadrillion people in the earth. What are you going to do? But the desire to leave an imprint on this Earth so it knows that you existed.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

It increases. Okay. So for everybody out there, for us. Okay. The clarity moment. So, like, the person that you saw, Adam. Okay. Was with the sweatpants and the shirt?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay. I think the moment of possible revelation and clarity and peace can occur when you understand that you can still make an imprint, a positive one here on Earth. That days are regardless. I mean, you can't. I can't take back the hurts and the things that have occurred. I guarantee it. I guarantee. If we were unpacking his story, there's tragedies that we can't even Fathom, I'm sure, that occurred in his life. There's relationships that are completely destroyed. He feels completely alone. There is no anything. So I'm saying to us and everybody out there that are listening today, regardless, it may be a Thursday, it may be a Friday, it may be a Saturday. I don't care what day. Doesn't have to be Ash Wednesday. If nothing else, here at the end of this and to possibly look for a second and to say to yourself, you know what? I'm not going to live forever, But my life is worth living, and I'm valuable enough whether I understand it or not or whether I think I'm worthy enough or not, That I can have an impact here on Earth. It may not make sense and that we look forward somehow of waking up. And so I think it is of utmost importance in our faith journey. That's why it starts here in it. Nobody likes to be at this place. And most people skip it completely.

[B]

Yeah,

[A]

you know, I don't want to go to that. Who wants to talk about death? That's stupid. I want to go to everybody be at Easter because everyone wants to talk about resurrection and eternal life. And that is good. Yeah, but we're talking about life here on Earth now. Okay? And so my challenge and for us to look at today is to understand today in the church calendar, it is about embracing there's two truths. Okay? These. These are truths, okay? The truths are that you were born and you will die. Yes, that's a truth.

[B]

Without a doubt.

[A]

Without a doubt we can do nothing about. The other one is this gray area of how we live the time in between the two, And then how we truly embrace what is occurring there. So for y' all out there, it is a grand opportunity to possibly look and to go, dang, I don't have to keep doing things this way.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, so that's it on the Ash Wednesday stuff. I do encourage you, if you're looking during the Lent stuff, to look at the things that we got going on, but more importantly, to look at yourself and to look at our own self and my own self and this and that and whatever. Wouldn't that be not funny, ironic? Okay? Because even this, okay, I don't truly live in this truth because I will say, hey, join us next week because Nancy and I are going to talk about this. By saying that sentence philosophically, I am acknowledging, I believe at the core of my being that, sure, I'm going to be around next week. Probably I am. The probabilities are that that is going to occur, but it's not for certain.

[B]

True,

[A]

but even we say this, but we live this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm saying today, live in a moment of going, dad, yum. This is kind of cool. I'm at peace with the fact that I am going to pass someday. And I want to cherish the fact that I am alive today.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Life is not something to be endured, is not a gray fog, nastiness of muck that we just got to wander through. It is a beautiful picture that God is painting in front of us days to embrace and to enjoy. That is the art that God has created in our lives. But yet we still desire and live ourself in such a way that. Oh, we got to be in a meeting. Okay, so we're supposed to be at a meeting right now. So the challenge is to you to live in such a way that you see the beauty around us. And we're going to continue this discussion. So that is that. Because we got a zoom meeting waiting on Nancy because she's leading it right now. Everybody out there. That is for certain. And live in such a way that you embrace the fact that tomorrow is not a given gift. So that is that. Hope you have a great day, and we will talk to you later. Bye, Sam.