Reflections on Lent

I know this is a little bit after the end of Lent. And no, I did not do it to see how my 40 days without things effected my usual life, though that did happen. To begin, here is what I gave up for Lent and my reasoning for giving it up.

1. Non-Christian music: When I get in certain moods (pity, regret, selfish), there are certain non-Christian songs that I listen to to stay in that mood. I know that is not beneficial for me, so I only listened to Christian music for Lent.

2. Unnecessary internet usage: This included mainly instant messenger and facebook and really left me with only email, news (but not for long) and things for school (ie Bible Gateway). I needed this since I spend so much time online rather than reading or my quiet time. I did allow myself to “break” this on Sundays.

And here are the lessons I learned.

1. What I listen to really does effect how I feel and act. My 40 days of only Christian music was beneficial and did help me to maintain a positive attitude. I could not keep myself in those negative moods, which helped me overall. Two weeks later, I have avoided resorting to these types of songs at the times when I would normally have listened to them. Yay for gaining some self-control!

2. It is so easy to replace one distraction for another. Right as I gave up internet usage, I got hooked on Grey's Anatomy. It took going through the season and having nothing else to take up my time before I began to spend my time reading, both novels and the Bible. After I “ran out” of a distraction, I was able to make reading a part of my normal routine.

3. I don't like Facebook. I know one friend who will be pleased with that conclusion. I realized that it is so artificial and that I want real communication with friends and family. Not some way-too-multi-purpose social network. Oh, and I really don't need to know all the little things going on with all my many “friends.”

4. I struggle about being intentional about maintaining friendships. Without constant instant messenger, I found myself talking to my friends and family less. It was tough, because I wanted to, but was not used to using email as my main communication. I've also found that I really do like instant messenger, but have changed from using it all the time to just using it for real conversations with friend (as opposed to reading away messages or 'chatting').

5. Overall, growing closer to God is more than just giving up things. It is way too easy to replace with other things that still keep us from Him. Or we end up giving up things that He may not mind us having. It is not about the things that we do or don't do, but our heart and whether or not it truly beats for Him.