Lent Revisited

So, about 5 hours into Lent I changed my mind. I'm not giving up soda. I wasn't comfortable with the motivations behind why I was doing Lent, and it wasn't something I was doing with the Church body, and right now, since my issues are primarily with the Church body, it just didn't seem right.

So, I'm gonna do what my church is doing. Sort of. I've got to tweak it a little and make it my own. As a part of our Scripture reading for the year, the pastor has asked us to set aside one day a month and fast from food, and has given us things to think about, reflect on, pray about, etc.

I'm not at a place right now where I can fast from food. Fasting is not a part of my routine, and every Saturday I planned to fast, I forgot about it until after breakfast. So, I'm going to work up to the fasting from food for one whole day. I'm going to take baby steps, because that's about all I can do right now.

Each Saturday of Lent, and hopefully beyond, I'm going to fast from something. One Saturday, I'm going to fast from media (tv, internet, radio). I hope to read my Bible instead of people.com. One Saturday, I'm going to fast from soda. I'm not sure what I'll get out of that yet. I hope One Saturday, I'm going to fast from people. I hope to talk to God about my Church issues and maybe wrestle some of them out. One Saturday, I'm going to fast from spending one single cent. I hope to think about where my money goes and how I spend it and what motivates me to spend, etc.

I need to do more than just give up soda. I need to examine my motives about lots of things, not just the one thing I'm really tempted to indulge in. And I need to do it for a better reason than "because."