Ash Wednesday - Bring on Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Well even that depends on if you are under the Western or Eastern Christian religious affiliation. I am not sure which I am. I’m Mormon, so I don’t know if either really counts. All I know is that when I looked at my calendar on Monday and it said “Lent begins” I thought to myself “oh crap I didn’t know it was Lent today.” Lucky for me I can start today, Ash Wednesday, the second recognized start date of Lent.
I have never participated in Lent before. Something just sounded appealing about it this year. Maybe I didn’t have enough goals and thought I should squeak another one out. Maybe I just like cruel and unusual punishment. So instead of heaping this on top of my other goals, I am going to use this to accomplish one of my 27 goals. Goal # 19 “Develop a Christ-like Characteristic.” You don’t mind that Lent ends after my birthday do you?
The purpose of Lent is to make sacrifices allowing you to grow closer to God. Christ fasted 40 days in the wilderness before he began his ministry. I am sure he used that time to pray and converse with his Heavenly Father. To learn from him, to understand his mission and to prepare himself for his ministry. Today I embark on my own 40 days of Lent (technically it is 46, but Sundays aren’t suppose to be counted).
Now to decide what to give up?. I asked everyone I came in contact with over the last 2 days. People at work, friends I ran into at the coffee shop and people in my photo class. I even searched the internet for ideas. Finally, I found something that would be worthwhile and challenging. SNOOZE!

Yes, that is right. For the next 46 days I will be giving up my snooze button. That doesn’t mean I can’t sleep in. I just can’t use the snooze button to give me 8 extra minutes of blissful sleep. This will be extra challenging because I have two alarm clocks. I will have to use only one, thus reducing the desire to have one as the back up and ultimately acting as the snooze for the first alarm. I will also have to go to bed earlier making sure I am rested when that alarm goes off. Ever turn off the alarm before you even realize it? That is me far too often. So there you go. I am putting it out in the blogging world. I am giving up my snooze button as my sacrifice to Lent.
But wait! That’s not all. Ultimately, I want to participate in Lent for its true purpose. I want to draw closer to God. I want to learn from Him, understand His mission and prepare myself for my personal ministry (ok that is a little weird to say, but I am sure there is something/someone of which I am supposed to minister). I have never read the entire Bible cover from cover, so that is exactly what I will do, sort of. I have the next 46 days to read the entire New Testament (so that is half of the Bible). There are 403 number of pages in the copy I have. That will be 8.76 per day. Wow! This will be a challenge. Wish me luck.

Here are some links I enjoyed about Lent and ideas for Lent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

http://www.ehow.com/how_2172166_pick-what-give-up-lent.html

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2003/03/05/7507/

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/Lent/What-Im-Giving-Up-For-Lent.aspx