Another Year, Another Lent

Lent begins in a few days. This is the weekend of Mardi Gras frenzy; the madness will go on in spite of a wet forecast. I suspect many of those who take part will be oblivious to rain and a great many other things for most of the weekend. I am glad to not live in an area where parades and such happen. Eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is enough revelry for me.

The approach of Lent does mean it is time to consider what sort of fasting might be an appropriate spiritual discipline for this year. I've done various things related to food in past years, but I want to try something different this year. Especially having adopted a vegan diet since the beginning of the year, food has its own issues for the time being. This is a year to fast from some other habit or activity so as to free up time and energy to pay attention to God's presence in the world.

Fortunately, finding such a habit was not hard. All I had to do was pay attention to how much time I spent yesterday playing games on Facebook and Pogo to see something that I waste a great deal of time doing and which would be somewhat difficult, if not downright hard, to give up. Even on a day when I was relatively busy I think I spent several hours over the course of the day harvesting crops, searching for hidden items, rescuing lost fairies, and trying to beat my opponents in Tetris. Nothing accomplished other than bragging rights, and other things left unattended as a result.

So I'm giving them up for Lent. Over the course of the next few days I will shut down the farm and put other games into hibernation. The only game I will continue to play is Literati with Amy in the morning, because that's more about spending time with Amy than it is the game; the game just gives us a place where we can chat for free. All the rest will go on hiatus until after Easter. I don't even dare play them on either Sunday or my Sabbath, which would ordinarily be respites from the Lenten discipline, because I'm afraid that doing so will make taking up the discipline again all the harder.

The question, of course, is what will I do with the time I'm not spending clicking on mahjong tiles. There are plenty of other ways to distract myself and waste time. Walking and exercise would certainly be good substitutes, but then the focus is on me and my own self-improvement. I could knit or sew for charity, but I do that anyway. I decided that reading would probably be the best way to keep the focus of the discipline on God. As for what to read, I had to look no further than the pile of books on the trunk at the end of my bed. A whole stack of books of all types waiting for me to get to them. A quick sort of the pile yielded a dozen titles worthy to be considered "spiritual reading." Another sort narrowed the list to six. Here they are:
     Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
     The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
     Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons by Frederick Buechner
     Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler
     The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet
     Preachers and Misfits, Prophets and Thieves by G. Lee Ramsey, Jr.
I doubt I will actually make it through all six books. That's not the point of the discipline. The point is to spend my time doing something that will enrich my soul in place of giving myself carpal tunnel disease.

The hardest time is going to be first thing in the morning. I'm habituated to making the coffee then coming to the computer and getting the day going and my brain in gear through the mental stimulation offered by the games. No book is going to replace that. That may be the time to head to the studio and run the sewing machine on something simple and repetitive while I catch up with the news of the day. I may take up journaling again. I may walk. I'll figure it out day by day, I suspect.

I don't know who will join me on my Lenten journey by reading this blog. If anyone does, please comment. I'd like to know that I have company in the wilderness.