February 18, 2026 Midweek News
Today is Ash Wednesday. Maybe you grew up in a Christian setting that celebrated Lent and Ash Wednesday, or maybe this is new territory for you. Lent is a season renewal and introspection. It is a time to seek God’s forgiveness and direction as we walk with Christ toward Easter Resurrection Sunday.
As we feel the wind in our faces today, and look up at the snowy mountains, we recognize that although those peaks look solid and unmovable, they are still shaped by time, wind and weather. Lent is a lot like that wind and quiet pace of time. Lent is intended to quietly reshape us over an intentional season. Not through spiritual theatrics, but through God’s grace.
One of the traditional scriptures for Ash Wednesday is this, from Matthew 6: 21 – “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Ash Wednesday asks us: What has become your treasure? What quietly owns your heart?
Make space for God’s mercy beginning today, either through a disciplined reading of the Bible, daily prayer time, fasting from certain foods or activities – so that you are shaped more by God’s grace than other factors of life.
I invite you to lift up the above prayer as we begin the Lenten season together. Ash Wednesday Services are in the sanctuary at 12:30 and 6:30pm today.
Lenten blessings,
Pastor Jared