Ash Wednesday Maybe

Thinking about Ash Wednesday and Lent for the last few days. My mind has been completely out of the loop recently as far as the religious calendar is concerned. In fact, my upbringing, while highly faith-filled and filled to the brim with church, didn't really make room for certain celebrations like Ash Wednesday and Lent. I was raised with lots of Baptist roots, and Baptists, like many evangelical traditions, don't really put as much emphasis on the death so much as the resurrection.

Dan Allender once said something like, "No Christian has the right to be an optimist, because of the death. And no Christian has the right to be a pessimist, because of the resurrection." I think about that a lot.

I'm thinking about observing Lent. I've only ever observed it once, and never came out of it. I guess I've been known to over-observe. Three years later and I'm still not eating meat. Sometimes my will is a little too strong.

I also am thinking about observing Ash Wednesday tomorrow, which was the point of writing this in the first place. Does anyone know of an Ash Wednesday service I can attend in LA? The church I usually attend isn't having one. Part of me would love to observe it Catholic style, or in a different atmosphere than I'd usually be found. Suggestions?