Lent

Well, Lent begins today. Last year, I gave up drinking cokes. That was pretty difficult since coke, my favorite source of caffeine, was the primary staple of my diet in grad school. This year, though, I’m not so stuck on coke.

Instead, I’m going to follow an idea I got from a Randy Harris lecture on prayer that I found online. I’m going to give up some time. I have heard the phrase “wasting time with God” a good bit lately since I’ve been doing a casual study of prayer for about a month. I’m not good at wasting time. I’ve been trying to get better at it during this little semester-long sabbatical. I’m not good at it, though. My days, so far, are quite filled. Even when I’m doing nothing (this semester), I keep myself busy with my own pursuits.

So for Lent, I’m going to devote one hour per day to prayer. No cheating either. Morning, mealtime, and bedtime prayers don’t count toward the hour. This is an extra hour’s worth on its own. That said, a variety of prayer styles will be allowed. For instance, I’m reading through the psalms and am going to do a little lectio divina (passage unchosen as of yet). Those things count.

I’m not sure that I’ll have the choice of keeping this up during the week in Chicago, but that will be ok, too (the work will make up for it).

Anyway, that’s it. Just to define this for myself.