Lent

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to practice Lent.

Probably you think this means I'm giving up chocolate.

I'm not. I love chocolate too much to give it up. Plus, what would Easter be without a Cadbury Creme Egg?

Okay, that's not the real reason. The real reason is that I already have a complicated relationship with food; I don't need to make it more complicated by giving up some kind of food for seven weeks altogether. I also feel that giving up a food group would turn this Easter season from a spiritual exercise into a kind of sanctified diet, which is not my purpose.

My purpose for celebrating Lent is to engage in prayer, reflection, and behaviour that makes more space for Christ in my life; during the period leading up to Easter, I want to invite Christ to reawaken me to His presence in my life and make me more like Him.

Last year, I read in St John of the Cross (a medieval Spanish mystic) a prayer which I think is an apt description of my hope for Lent:

Do Thou awaken us, then, and enlighten us, my Lord, that we may know and love the blessings Thou hast ever set before us, and we shall know that Thou hast been moved to grant us favor, and that Thou hast been mindful of us.

This is, in a nutshell, my hope: to organize my life in a way that makes me more aware of God's favor in my life.

To that extent, I am doing two things for Lent. I want to share them here, not to boast but to have a kind of accountability, if only electronic. I also want to have them written down so I remember what they are and feel committed to them. It's easier to commit to something that's published, rather than just in my brain.

The first is to fast from humor websites. I'm not going to list them all here, but I'll have a list in my house to remind me. Essentially, if a website exists to divert my attention or distract me, I won't be spending time on it. This means I won't visit some websites at all (Buzzfeed), and other websites I'll use on a more limited basis (Pinterest).

Reading humor websites consumes far too much time during my day, time which I could be using to read Scripture or pray. Heck, I could be using it to read an actual book, which would feed my mind more than Buzzfeed does. Essentially, I want to discipline my time better; I want my leisure time to be truly restful, not just relaxing.

The second is related: With some of the time I "buy back" from humor websites, I am going to read The Prodigal God. (You'll notice that this is another one of my resolutions for 2015.) It turns out that The Prodigal God has seven chapters, so I should be able to read a chapter for every Sunday in the Easter Season.

That's all, at least for right now. I have one more idea I'm toying with, and I've invited my church to join with me on this, but I'm still waiting to hear back from my church, so this is all I have to share for now. In my personal life at least, I want to start small. I read somewhere that Lent is a spiritual exercise, not a whole-life overhaul, and since I don't want to overwhelm myself or bite off more than I can chew, these are my only plans.

Incidentally, I should mention that limited as my celebration of Lent is, I don't expect it to be easy or comfortable. Transformation into the image of Christ never is - I know, because I've failed or shied away from it too often in the past. But hopefully, as I look forward to the resurrection of Christ and remember my new birth in Him, He can make me just a little bit "newer" myself.

I'll let you know how it goes, especially the reading of The Prodigal God. 

If you're doing Lent, please let me know. Like most parts of the Christian life, this practice only grows richer when done not only individually but also in community.