It was pointed out to me last night by Brittany that I am obsessed by time. This was made aware to me as we sat in the same restaurant that we had sat in almost a year ago for our anniversary. A year that has seemed like a week.I am fascinated by time. I've found that the older you get the faster time goes by. It's really true. Did you know that by the end of this month we will be a quarter of the way through the year. Only three more of these and it will be Christmas again. Crazy right? ..No? Just me then.
But it's this obsession with time that reminded me that it is a year since Lent last year. Last year I attempted to follow the Lent experiential Calendar that Mars Hill (yep the Rob Bell Mars Hill) offered on their website. Rather than giving up one thing for Lent you got the chance to experience Lent and take action.
For me Lent is like the younger brother of New Year's resolutions. Just trying to do what they do because they look up to them, but always a bit later and not quite as cool. I think maybe its the religious thing.
Last year I wasn't so successful at Lent. I was really excited and ready to move closer to God but to be honest when it came to the calendar I picked the days when it asked me to do something that was pretty easy. Like pray for an issue I cared about or eat my weight in chocolate (ok that one I made up but wouldn't Lent be mush easier for us all, and the people around us if we had to eat more chocolate rather than less). Other days I passed by. Like calling someone I had fallen out with to make ammends with them.
Things like that are too hard. And sure, I was probably too busy that day.
You see when it comes to things like Lent I am so super excited because I see that finally I have a good reason to change the things about myself that I don't like. I love Christian festivals because they are reminders. We get caught up so much in our lives, in our struggles, in our jobs, in ourselves that we need reminded. Reminded of God.
To stop and reflect and listen for God and discover how we can love others.
But most of the time for the rest of the year I am always moving, I am not thinking and I drown God out with...well anything else. And I think of myself first.
This year I need Lent.
I need reminded.
And I don't want to forget.
(If you would like to follow the Mars Hill experiential calendar you can find it here. I'm going to do it and I would love you to do it with me. This Lent I'm going to write every day a bit about my experience and I want to share these with you, but wouldn't it be great if we could share them with each other. I'll write and you can leave comments about what you have been learning and we can help each other out. I'm calling it the great Lent blogging extravaganza 2011. Hope to see you there)
