What are you DOing?

For most of my adult life I have heard priests suggest that rather than give something up for Lent, we should try to do something to strengthen our faith or help others or, ideally, both.  I can see the benefit of both courses of action.  As I mentioned earlier, I have given things up before that I knew I'd be better off without and I used Lent as an opportunity to purge myself of some bad habits.  I also think that it's not such a bad idea to deprive yourself of something every once in awhile.  In this day and age we are so accustomed to getting what we want, when we want it, that even something as seemingly trivial as giving up meat one day a week is good for the soul.  On any given week I usually go two days without meat just out of convenience, but knowing that I can't order that burger on Friday makes me crave it all the more.  It is good to delay gratification sometimes.

So this year I am choosing the route of trying to "do" something.  I am going to dedicate 20 minutes a day to listening to God.  So often when I pray, I am only talking.  I ask for things like protection for my family and friends, blessings for those I know could use them, and patience in my day-to-day life and I thank God for all He has given me.  The conversation has been pretty one-sided.  I wouldn't treat one of my girlfriends that way, and this is GOD!  He probably has some pretty excellent things to tell me if I'd let Him get a word in every once in awhile.

During this 20 minutes of reflection each day I may just mediate, pray, or I may read the Bible.  My goal is to finish Mark, John, Acts and Romans during the next 6 weeks.  Last night I started Mark and I already feel my spirit strengthened.  This is something that I should have done a long time ago, but each time I tried to read the Bible I would start in Genesis (let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start...) and completely get lost during the first litany of names.  Now, thanks to the amazing Internet, I have a plan that will hopefully help me to not give up in frustration.

So here's to a little "doing" and a little deprivation.  I'm sure they'll both do ME a little good.