Lenting it Up

Lent has always been an enigma to me.  I've tried participating but it always seems to be a last minute decision based on the easiest thing to give up or add on.  This year, starting in late January I started thinking and "praying" about whether or not I would participate and if I did, why.  Food has never been a good fasting thing for me. It really just leaves me hungry or apathetic.  So I started thinking through the areas in my life that I felt had become a little too much.  Things like TV or Internet, social media, etc.  I wasn't ready to give up TV because its time I get with my roommate where we can just relax.  I think i definitely need to limit my TV watching but I wasn't ready to give it up completely for lent.  There was another area that I was finding that was getting in the way of some serious God time.  I found myself in the morning checking email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, etc for hours instead of spending quality time with God or sometimes getting my "freelance" work done.  So i started contemplating this and debating it in my head.  I hadn't told anyone and even up until the morning of Ash Wednesday, I hadn't fully committed.  That was until I woke up and found myself being drawn to something other then God for the last time.  So I set forth to make it my Twitter Status, cinching the deal before I backed out.  So for this Lent season, I am staying away from Twitter, Facebook, pinterest, people.com, Pioneerwoman.com and anything that is not work related or relationship building.  I will read a few blogs of my friends but only those people who I want to keep tabs on. Right now, its just two people so I think I am good.

How's it been going?  Last week was tough. I realized that I will stare at something on the internet for the shear reason of being distracted.  Its not cause I really care or need to know something, its because I just don't want to be doing or thinking of the things I should be doing or thinking about... So I found myself doing my budget over and over on mint.com or looking at my own etsy.com page.  Anything to not be focused on other, more important things.  I gave myself a sabbath on Sunday so that I could respond to birthday wishes but realized at the end of the day that I was doing myself a disservice by linking in.  So I decided not to give myself weekly Sabbaths from my Lent fast.  So instead my Lent will be a 46 day fast instead of a 40 day fast.  That somewhat terrifies me but I think its what God is directing me to do... No Exceptions!

So far this week it has been a huge benefit. I am cleaning, blogging and getting organized (mentally and physically.)  I have been studying James with my discipleship group and instead of last minute prep, I am actually studying it!  I think this is going to be a great Lent season.  I am excited about what the Lord is going to reveal to me by making myself more available to him!

Also, as a disclaimer. For those of you following me on twitter or Facebook, any status updates from here on out are automatic updates from certain apps or blogs I am on.  When I go for a run, I have an app that logs my run and the various stats related to it.  When I am done it posts the run.  Also, this blog is set to feed every time I publish.  You might also see random posts related to my freelancing work but I guarantee I won't be directly on Facebook or Twitter.