Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Into the Desert

Happy Ash Wednesday, everybody! So, I know that these past few months I have been pretty much non-existent in my blogging. I'm terribly sorry about that, especially for all of those people who continuously told me to keep blogging! I kind of feel like I let you down.
The really hard part about blogging, and blogging well, I think, is that it's really hard to come up with substantial topics that my brain can work through enough to write about EVERY WEEK. But, as part of my Lenten challenge, I am going to blog every week. I can't promise that every post will be inspirational, uplifting, or even that it will make sense, but, I feel like I should not be so scared that I will write something ridiculous that I just don't even write anything at all. So, here goes the first of many more blog posts to come, my friends!


You will find that this succinct, truthful little phrase will basically be the summary of today's blog post, but, just in case you fancy a long read about my opinions and thoughts, I've decided to write anyway!

Let me start my giving you a head's up about every Lent I've ever tried participating in EVER. (Literally, every.single.year.)
One of two things will happen: a) I will have about 10 REALLY AMAZING ideas for what to do for Lent, and starting Ash Wednesday, I'll be super pumped about what those things are and I will start cutting out sugar, or meat, or sugar and meat and I'll promise to pray the rosary every day and to also start volunteering more, and I'll also decide that my attitude is way too pessimistic and so I'll promise to smile at every single person I encounter and to never act angry to anyone, ever and I'll be the perfect version of myself that is in my head that I'm always striving to be. OR b) I will think of at least 10 OKAY ideas for what to do for Lent, and then on Ash Wednesday I will decide that none of them are good enough and I'll just tell myself not to worry about it because, obviously, I'll think of a really good one that day to start. 
The moral of this ridiculous [real life] story is that, either way, I always fail BIG TIME. If I think of a million awesome things to do, it always becomes overwhelming and I end up handing in the towel within the first week of Lent, and if I think my ideas aren't good enough, I end up never being able to find one that is "just right" and I end up never even giving anything up!

I feel like the main reason that I never do Lent right is not necessarily because I've looked at it as a "diet", but instead, and this is what I feel the heart of the matter is with this statement, I've looked at Lent as a New Year's resolution, a personal goal that is aimed at making ME better. Every Lent, even if I thought my heart was in the right place, my real intent was to better myself for my own selfish reasons.

Now, I'm not saying that giving up sodas or junk food or promising to work-out every week is a BAD idea for Lent. Certainly, it is an awesome thing to do for your personal well-being. But, remember WHY you are giving those things up. It is not so that you can lose weight, it is not so you can have a hot bod. You should be giving those things up because they are DISTRACTIONS that are shifting your focus from God to worldly things. If we look at Lent as a re-do for our New Year's resolutions, than we are not even getting close to the potential that Lent could have for us. Instead of getting closer to God, we will just be feeding those distractions that take us away from God more.

I don't know about you, but I want to get this Lent right. I want to take these 40 days to truly wander into the desert with my Lord and I want Him to show me the things that have been distracting me from Him. I want Him to show me how to be a better servant for Him. The crazy (and kind of amazing thing) is that He is showing me all of that stuff EVERY DAY. It's just now that I am truly trying to get rid of those distractions and see it.

No comments:

Post a Comment