Lent?

The season after Epiphany was too short. Now it's Lent already. Lent is supposed to mean spring. But Lent will end just as spring starts.

So, what do I give up for Lent? In years past I've tried giving up pop and chips. I managed to do it but was miserable about it. Is that the point of fasting from something?

This year I decided that instead of giving anything up I'll take up a few things. I'll be more intentional about reading the Bible (other than what I have to read to prepare a sermon), setting aside time for prayer (besides the anytime, anywhere prayers), and I'll add some physical activity into my routine. So:

• I'll read the daily scripture readings suggested in my desk calendar.
• I'll pray the Great Litany (LBW p. 168 or ELW 238).
• I'll get out the skipping rope and get my heart rate up and try to gradually increase the time I spend at it.

How does that stack up to the discipline of Lent that contends against evil and resists whatever leads us away from love of God and neighbour? Self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love? Maybe part of that is in there.

I'm preaching tonight about alms-giving, fasting, and prayer (Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21). Really I'm quoting a lot from Walter Wangerin Jr.'s Whole Prayer: Speaking and Listening to God where he talks a bit about those disciplines. Maybe I'll slip some fasting into my lenten discipline. I don't know how, yet, or when. But I'll have to find some way to do it without it making me miserable.

Have a blessed Lent everyone.