Anti-Lent

Thursday 3/16/2012 6:22 AM

Hebrews 2:1 is a good reminder for me today.  “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”

For the majority of my life I have been extremely disciplined in my exercise routine.  I run at least five times per week and often times even more.  While some have argued that my workout should include some sort of weight training regimen to increase muscle mass they could never suggest that I lacked discipline.

During the last two weeks I have only gone out for a run three times and I have not run yet this week.  Yesterday I spent my time finishing up some test correcting that needed to be done but most mornings I simply went online to catch up on news or my Scrabble games for a couple of minutes and got carried away, wasting over an hour or more of time.  I have drifted away from the discipline that was so much a part of who I am.

The same has been true with my devotional time.  I have not strayed from the path quite as much as I have strayed from my exercise routine but my devotions have been cut short and I have taken less time to contemplate what God is trying to say and reflect on what I read.  This results in an incomplete journal entry or no journal entry at all, making it difficult to look back to see a trend in God’s word to me.

This year I didn’t intentionally give anything up for Lent but it would seem that I have given up something good by simply drifting away.  I think I need to practice anti-Lent for the remainder of this season and take up the habits that I have let go.