Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. This is a season for reflection and sacrifice. It is also a time of preparation as we get ready for the death and resurrection of Jesus. I am Catholic and Lent is a special time for me to get more in touch with my faith.
I normally give something up for lent. Often it is things like sweets or coffee or other things that I really don’t need anyway. The thing about what I have been doing for the past few years is that it has been more an inconvenience or annoyance than a real sacrifice. Additionally, if I am truly honest with myself, there have often been other motives associated with what I was giving up and that really defeats the whole point of the practice. So this year I am approaching Lent with a different perspective.
Instead of just focusing on what I am going to give up, I am going to focus on building my faith and giving back to those in my community. There are two key things that I am going to do this lent. The first is to carve out time each day to read and reflect on the day’s scripture and pray. This is definitely one area of my faith where I have been slacking.
The other thing that I want to do is to spend time volunteering to help out those who are less fortunate than me. I have been really blessed and I want to take the time to share these blessings with others. I am still working out the details on exactly what I am going to do.
I know that God has a plan for me and I need to have faith in that plan. This is often uncomfortable for me because it means I sometimes need to give up control. This Lenten season I am going to work on building my faith and putting trust in his plans.
