After being reminded that Lent starts this week, Arlene Hewitt of St. Paul's Methodist Church in Ithaca, NY conveyed the importance of Lent. I was not raised participating in Lent; I thought it was mainly a "Catholic thing" but after hearing Arlene's it's not just for Catholics. Lent is a way to prepare our hearts in order to come to the cross. Yes, it is true that we can go to the cross anytime, anywhere, at any season of our lives, but especially for us Christians, we can have a better idea of what it means to be "hungry" for Christ (Luke 4:2).
It took me a few years to participate in the Lent season, but after I noticing that Lent isn't just about taking away something and making ourselves miserable to then either party hard right before or after the season, I found we can still get valuable experiences and spiritual growth out of Lent. I appreciate one of my best friends deciding to participate in Lent while I was studying abroad in Rome and telling me that she decided to change her regular schedule in mind, body and soul. She decided to journal instead of watch TV; not to eat desserts and to have more quiet time with God? Not sure on the last one but seems right...Arlene definitely reiterated that Lent isn't just about taking something away but adding something more to your walk with God.
Therefore, after thinking about this and quickly getting a Word from the Big Man above, I've decided to meet with or chat with 40 different people from the Ithaca College Protestant Community or Cornell Fellowship of Christian Athletes, past alumni, or friends from high school. (If you're reading this, you can probably expect a phone call or skype date from me :) I'll probably also not use Twitter for 40 days, just telling God my thoughts in 140 characters or less lol; I'll probably refrain from pop and possibly dessert, which will be SUPER TOUGH as I've had chocolates in my apartment all year and/or baked goods - especially chocolate ones.
I think meeting with various people in the community and catching up with past friends, will be a great way to reconnect or connect and get to know others on a deeper level. I strongly believe that Facebook and Twitter has made all of us lazy in how we communicate with others because we already know the gist about what's going on in others' lives. We can just look up their timeline or profile or tweets to know what's up with so and so, when we could have just called, which I also think has gotten even more intimate than it has been in the past. People would rather say, shoot me a text! Instead of call me? Where's the communication in that? Jesus said, "Go and make" not "go look it up on your smart phone."
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