While attending the Ash Wednesday worship experience at Northminster Baptist Church, two words, one from scripture and another from prayer, captured my attention. From the book of Joel: “rend your hearts, not your clothes” and from a prayer: “…amend your lives”. “Rend and Amend”, two rhyming words that I scribbled on my bulletin to insure that their thought-provoking combination of letters would not have vanished from my memory by the time I got home.
And so today, I begin that pondering:
Vaguely I remember from Bible teachings that rend is often used in reference to ripping or tearing of clothing as a sign of great repentance and sorrow. Joel’s words command the ripping and tearing of one’s heart, which is a deeper and more life-altering action than a command to rip apart one’s clothes. One demands painful introspection while the other requires actions that might possibly result in a mental evaluation or at least some strange looks. The more modern translation, The Message says, “change your heart, not just your clothes”. Again, a call to a more dramatic action to alter, transform or amend one’s being from the inside rather than from the outside. Major difference between changing or rending one’s heart and changing or rending one’s clothes!
These words are significant to me because I went, searching for god’s voice, in a setting that was intentionally unfamiliar, to which I brought no expectations, prejudices or emotional baggage.
…and I was able to hear these two words for my journey. “REND & AMEND”
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