Ash Wednesday — Fourteenth Anniversary of the Hubbell Pew — Purification

Today marks the fourteenth anniversary of The Hubbell Pew. A project started by my son and I to find a way to be productive during Lent. Giving up oatmeal raisin cookies wasn’t working for me.

Every year I think it is time to retire the posts, Lent arrives and I tell myself one more Lenten season.
When people ask me about the Lenten season, I best explain it as a time for purification.
Ash Wednesday is the first day in that purification process, and the Cherokee remind us that “purification is not just of the body, but the mind.”
Unless we use this opportunity to remove the bad thoughts and poison in our minds our body remains impure.
At the core of this form of purification is respect — respect for our bodies so we watch what we eat and drink, and respect for our neighbors so we watch what we say and think about others.
I am convinced that the best way to learn respect for someone who we might think is unworthy, is to serve that individual — whether it be at a soup kitchen, a medical facility, or in one’s daily work.
Begin this first day of purification with the four cornerstones of the Lenten season — prayer, meditation, fasting, and service. The journey begins today.
Where it leads only God knows, but I guarantee you it will lead you closer to God.

About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.

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