Lent begins and so in a sense does my detox ...

So lent begins tomorrow / today ...so what am I giving up I hear you ask? Well, coffee and chocolate (which made my friend tonight by telling me he'd be coming nowhere near me for six weeks!). Why? Well, for me coffee (and to a slightly lesser extent chocolate) are addictions for me, and I mean that quite literally as my body lets me know when I do not have it. Had been sensing God saying that that was what I needed to give up because it would cost me something, and after some resistance (me giving up coffee is not a pretty sight for a while, be warned, prayer needed) I've surrendered. So for the next six weeks (40 days) coffee and chocolate will not be consumed in any way, shape or form. The money that is saved on this will be donated to a charity at the end of the time - it won't be much, but God can turn the not much into something.

However, while giving something up is important, I remember a practice that the folks at YFC used to build into what we did at Mid-Year Retreat which always took in the beginning of Lent. The practice was not only to give something up that would cost you something (that is in part the reason we give things up at this time) but also then to take something up for the same period. So the thing that I am taking up (other than by natural consequence taking up or rather in a detox) is meditation. Unpacking that some, I realised during my placement how much I squeeze out time meditating on the Word, savouring it and digesting it, rather than merely reading for information, sermon points, or in the time left over after other things have been done. Yet the Word is something that really does need to be reflected on and savoured if I am going to live it out and let it clothe me.

Therefore, for the same period that I have no coffee I will have more meditation. Time that would be given over to coffee and my 'sanity' time will now be able to be devoted to creating time and space for meditation such as lectio divina or centering prayer and other forms if 'spiritual reading' of Scripture. Time and a new rhythmn will hopefully be developed, something that in six weeks should help form new habits for me, something I could certainly use. And in those same six weeks perhaps an addictive habit will be broken.

So please bear with me in love if for the next few days my moods are all over the place ... I am aware that may be the case and am praying it will not. Please keep me accountable as I try to build new habits and make meditation something that receives not just the time left over, but some of my best time. And please get excited with me as God speaks new (and perhaps reminds me of old) challenges, encouragements and all kinds of other things into my life and perhaps even the lives of others.