Lent 2014

Jess: We are officially in the season of Lent, and Wes and I are doing a smattering of Lenten disciplines this year. The whole purpose of these practices is to remove obstacles that get in the way of your relationship with God, with keeping faith and the Almighty at the center of your life. Over the years, we have both "given up" a variety of things: junk food, TV, Facebook, etc. 

This year, we had a long discussion about what would be good to give up for the season of Lent, and we came up with...nothing. We talked about giving up Facebook, which is not a bad idea, but we have too many people who keep in contact through that method. Instead, I chose to move the FB app on my phone out of the way so that I'm not automatically hitting it when I turn on my phone. I think more carefully about whether I'm getting on FB because I have something important to do there, or because I'm too lazy to think of something better to do with my time. 

I stopped giving up certain kinds of food a few years ago after I lost five pounds over Lent. I don't want the underlying purpose of any Lenten discipline to be losing weight or some other outcome that's better for me in that way. As a side benefit, losing weight was fine, but going into Lent knowing that that would probably happen wouldn't work the same. Plus, Wes and I are both trying to be healthier overall, so we've been making changes along the way. 

While I tossed out the idea of giving up TV, Wes pointed out that we don't even watch TV every day anymore. We have 4 or 5 half hour shows that we watch when they're new, plus we have a show we're watching on Netflix. For the most part, we watch less than an hour of TV per day. Some days it's none, and some days we veg, but an hour or less is the norm. We don't let James watch TV, so our time for doing so is limited to his sleep times, and we generally would rather read or play a game at this point in our lives. This didn't seem like a sacrifice that would really change our lives in any significant way, and it certainly wouldn't lead us closer to God, it would just lead us to read or play games more often. 

So this year we settled on simplification and re-focusing our lives, which is the overall goal of Lent. We are supposed to take this time to examine ourselves and our lives, and see where they are going astray from God's plan for us. To that end, we are taking on two Lenten disciplines: 1) 40 bags in 40 days, which involves going through our house, our cars, and probably our computers/phones to throw out/give away what we don't need or use. 2) Reading through and doing activities from Adam Hamilton's Love to Stay, with the purpose of taking time to focus on our marriage and God each week and day of the season. I'm looking forward to both!

Wes: Basically, what Jess said.

Also, I’m trying a couple of new things during this Lenten season that should be fun. One of my good friends, Jon Lys, has agreed to do a Facetime book study with me. We’re going to be reading through Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, the book he began to write and never finished while staying as a permanent resident in a Nazi death camp. He was executed before he could finish it. I’m excited to read through this with Jon, and excited to dive once again into one of my favorite theologian/pastor’s works.

The second thing that I’m going to try to do—we’ll see how successful it is—it to blog on a daily basis on either this blog or my personal one, The Flip-Flop Prophet. I’ve gotten way out of habit, and it’s actually something I like to do, so I’m hoping this can be a good encouragement for me. Between the decluttering, Love to Stay, and Ethics—as well as my weekly storytelling, sermon writing, etc…—I should have plenty to write about.

So what are y’all doing for Lent? Let us know, so we can encourage you in your endeavors.