To Be Thrown, Burned, Spun, Brushed, & Cleansed: A Note for Ash Wednesday

February 18, 2026

Have you not only trusted Christ for salvation, but also allowed Him to begin the process of transformation — the process of change — as it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, which changes you “into his likeness from one degree of glory to another”?

If you have given your life to Jesus, Jesus has given Himself to you and has made your heart His home. As Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “Christ lives in me.”

Are we truly tapping into Christ? Are we allowing Him to transform us, as it says in Colossians 3:10: “You have begun to live a new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you. This new life brings you the true knowledge of God.”

When we allow Christ not only to enter our hearts but also to transform them, He begins to root out the sin in our lives. As someone once said, “The closer we draw near to the light of Christ, the more our sins are lit up.” When we tap into His power, Christ leads us to become more and more like Him — “into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.”

As Max Lucado writes,“God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way… He wants you to be just like Jesus.”

Lent is a time when we allow God’s grace to root out the sin in our lives. We focus our thoughts more on God, inviting Him to bring our lives into greater alignment with His principles and the life of His Son.

Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter — when the faithful rededicated themselves, and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism.

By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days — emptying ourselves of the things of the world that tempt us and instead focusing on the Word of God, which gives us strength.

Often, however, we do not look forward to the transformation God desires to work in our lives. We hold back, reluctant to allow God to search our hearts and reveal what must be surrendered in order to make more room for Him. We avoid digging too deeply because, many times, it hurts.

God’s grace can sometimes feel like a wire brush being scraped across our being — removing the grime and dirt that have collected there and shaping us more into the likeness of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Sometimes — many times — it hurts.

God asks us to spit out the dirt in our lives. He cleanses us of filth, immorality, dishonesty, prejudice, bitterness, greed, and pride. Yet we do not always enjoy the cleansing. Sometimes, we even choose the dirt.

Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and marks the beginning of Lent. In ancient times, ashes were used to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent’s way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults.

An ancient example of repentance is found in Job 42. Job says to God: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Ash Wednesday is the day we express remorse and sorrow for the many ways we have disobeyed God, hurt others, and ignored our Savior. It is a time to confess our sins and invite God once more into our hearts: “Lord, I invite You in. Go ahead and do Your work. Root out those areas of my life that need to change — the things I must empty myself of to make more room for You, the habits I need to begin, and the attitudes that must be destroyed so I may become more like Your Son, Jesus Christ.”

Often, the seriousness of Lent is reduced to merely giving up something for forty days — perhaps meat, television, or chocolate — instead of confronting the deeper issues within us that must not simply be set aside temporarily but destroyed completely.

Lent is a time to wrestle with pride, gossip, resentment, prejudice, forgiveness, purity of thought, how we treat others, how we live at home, and how faithfully we seek God in prayer and Scripture.

We are called to wrestle with God as Jacob wrestled on the shore of the Jabbok River — clinging to Him until we are transformed.

In Jeremiah 18 (NIV), we read: “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said, ‘Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?’ declares the LORD. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand…’”

Like the potter with his clay, God is ready and willing to mold us.

There is a great story about a teacup that perfectly illustrates this...

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Spotting an exceptional cup, a couple asked, "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, the tea cup spoke.  "You don't understand," it said, "I have not always been a tea cup.  There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay.  My master took me and rolled me pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, 'Don't do that.  I don't like it! Let me alone,' but he only smiled, and gently said, 'Not yet!'

"Then, WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around.  'Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!', I screamed.  But the master only nodded and said, quietly, 'Not yet.'

"He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then....then he put me in the oven.  I never felt such heat.  I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door.  'Help! Get me out of here!' I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, 'Not yet.'

"When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened.  He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool.  'Oh, that felt so good! Ah, this is much better,' I thought.  But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over.  The fumes were horrible.  I thought I would gag.  'Oh, please; stop it, stop it!!' I cried.  He only shook his head and said.  'Not yet!'

"Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven.  Only it was not like the first one.  This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate.  I begged.  I pleaded.  I screamed.  I cried.  I was convinced I would never make it.  I was ready to give up.

"Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, What's he going to

do to me next? An hour later he handed me a mirror and said 'Look at yourself.' And I did.  "I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me.  It's beautiful.  I'm beautiful!'

"Quietly he spoke: 'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up.  I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled.  I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked.  I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened.  You would not have had any color in your life.  If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held.  Now you are a finished product.  Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you.'"

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As the story of the teacup illustrates, the shaping, spinning, and refining are not punishments, but acts of love. God sees what we can become long before we do.

Lent is a time to allow God to shape us, refine us, and cleanse us. It is a time to fix our eyes on Jesus, reflecting on His compassion, His forgiveness, His endurance, and His intimacy with the Father.

As Paul writes in Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God is willing to transform us into the likeness of the Savior. My prayer is that during this season of Lent, we accept His offer.