Mardi Gras is over. Most of us who participate in the annual festival don't know or care what it's about. Like most Christian rituals, it has become so divorced from its meaning that the mythological power is gone. It's a great time to party and so we do. We want the party without Lent. We want Easter without Good Friday, and we want redemption without confession. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. It wasn't the church or the government or even our parents who made these rules. That's just the way it is. When the church or the government or our parent (or our pastors) try to explain these rules to us we rebel against them. "Spoilsports!" Our rebellion can't change the truth, no matter how loudly we holler.
The rules of the universe are inexorable and the truth of the Bible describes not proscribes them. I didn't party last night, although I got caught in the Austin Mardi Gras traffic. Today I will go to a service that I don't fully understand, and my forehead will be marked by ash. I will carry that ash voluntarily into my life for the next 40 days and explore the shadow side of faith. There is much to be enjoyed in the light. Now I'm looking for the lessons of the darkness. Mardi Gras is about escaping. Lent is about engaging.
That's how I see it.
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