This holiday, the beginning of the season of Lent, stands as a counterweight to all of our talk about self-esteem, getting ahead, "those people," those immigrants, stupid democrats, ignorant republicans, and your irritating neighbor.
Appears to me, Ash Wednesday is an anathema in our culture. It acknowledges that we all came from the same place, and headed back there too. It is an acknowledgment that we are deeply flawed. All of us.
Here by the grace of God go I. And you.
We become walking beacons of messy redemption who no longer must compare ourselves to anyone else because we’re all marked with the same mark, stamped with the same grace and held in the same arms.
https://www.livinglutheran.org/2020/02/the-great-and-holy-leveling-field/