Lent

Ash Wednesday. The first day of Lent. I've always thought of Lent as the spiritual New Year. A chance to make resolutions to improve yourself and your surroundings. It's much easier to commit to doing things differently for just 40 days as opposed to a whole year anyway.

Catholics have a tradition of giving up things for Lent. One year my family gave up TV. It opened up so much more time to do other things. I gave up Facebook the last few Lenten seasons, and got a few extra hours a week for more substantive pursuits.

This year I don't want to give up anything. Instead I would like to add an evening devotional time. After dinner, I would like to make a cup of tea, sit in my favorite chair, and spend some time reading, praying and writing.

I can already foresee the temptations. I will feel compelled to join my family in watching American Idol on TV. I will want to write on my laptop instead of on paper. While typing on the laptop, I'll be drawn to the internet to look up words on the online dictionary or verses on the online concordance. Once I'm online, it'll be hard to ignore emails or chat messages. I will be able to justify my desires by telling myself that people are more important than any pointless self-created legalism. Besides, I never specified how long this devotion time had to be.  Five minutes might be good enough some days! Anyway, I made up the resolution, so I can change the parameters too!

Today, I shall surrender my Lenten resolution to God.

Lord, I would like to carve out some time in the evenings to sit with you. Please help me not to succumb to temptations and distractions. Amen.