Dust to Dominion, Cross to Crown

Deus Vult - God wills it.

In the ancient traditions of Ash Wednesday, we slow down and make space to listen for God. We consider our mortality, our fragility, and our sinfulness.

We consider our great and deep need for God.

The Latin phrase Deus Vult means "God wills it." The phrase has a complex history. Some say it started in the Crusades, as Christian crusaders fought against Muslim rule in the Holy Land. Some Christian groups have used it to prove God's support for military might and action. In other uses it simply means a return to God's order.

This is exactly what Ash Wednesday and Lent is good for - to lead us back to God's order.

And what is God's order?

In Genesis we see that God created us. In fact, he shaped us and formed us, and he breathed his breath of life into us.

He placed us in a garden of his own design. He walked with us. He gave us dominion over his creation, tasking us with caring for his world and for each other.

You might say that in God's order, we were pretty far up there.

Psalm 8:3-6

"When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers- the moon and the stars you set in place-what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority."

We were designed for dominion.

Read further in Genesis, and you will read how rather that sticking with the plan, we revolted. We decided to do things our own way. Our own way led us out of the garden of God's goodness and into a wilderness of brokenness.

To be honest, we still do this today.

Rather than listening to the Spirit of God, we listen to so many other voices and follow them away from God.

We were designed for dominion, but we choose the dust and dirt of the wilderness.

Lent is our chance to spend time slowing down, listening for God, reconnecting with God's goodness, and reorienting ourselves in obedience.

Here's where we often stop. Obedience means repentance. Obedience means that we follow in the ways of God. Repenting means we turn away from sin and turn to God. Therefore, to walk in obedience means we repent, even though much in modern-day thought tells us repentance is old fashioned.

Yet this is God's order for us.

Between now and Easter, Christians around the world will "fast" from things. Many hit the pause button and get off social media for 40 days, or they fast from sweets, or any number of other things. The point is not to give up something for the sake of giving it up, but to lay down something to pick up something better. For example, rather than scrolling on Facebook for two hours a night, that time can be used to pray, study scripture, serve at the food pantry, lead a bible study, visit and pray with someone in a hospital, or other things that will help you and others return to God's order for his creation.

Here's the truth about you.

God created you "only a little lower than God and crowned (you) with glory and honor. (God) gave (you) charge of everything (He) made, putting all things under (your) authority." (Psalm 8)

But you and I revolted. We turned from God. We seek our identity, our pleasure, and our purpose in nearly anything but God.

So, what is God's will?

Jesus came to become the sacrifice for your sin, to pay the sin debt that you cannot pay on your own, and to give you victory over sin and death.

Jesus comes into the wilderness of our lives and leads us back into the garden.

Deus Vult - God wills it.

May this Lenten season be your time to return to God's order. God has a great and glorious plan for you, and for all of us!

2 Corinthians 5:17, 20

"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! ... So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!"

Because of the cross, we wear the crown of Jesus' righteousness.

Deus Vult.