One Hour A Day

So.

For some reason, everywhere I turn this year, everyone is talking about what they are giving up for Lent.

Confession: I’ve never given up anything for Lent. Maybe because I’m not Catholic? It’s just not a tradition I grew up hearing about, so it’s only been recent years with the insurgence of social media that Lent was even on my radar as a “thing.”

But regardless of the origins of the tradition, I like the idea of “giving up” something to focus more time on Jesus.

I’ve been mulling over what I’d give up this year. Nothing felt right.

But then our pastor’s wife posted on her blog what SHE was giving up…. and it was a bit different. Her fear of failure.

Ohhhh, giving up a fear. Now THERE is a concept.

While that isn’t what I decided to give up, it made me start thinking outside the box of what to “give up”.

Then this morning, I went to the gym for the first time since November. I’d been doing really well last year, but then Annabelle got sick and work got crazy. We won’t mention how much weight I gained back the last two months. *ahem*

Well, Annabelle is better and I’m not working at the moment, so no more excuses. So off to the community rec center I went after the kids were in school.

As I was on the little eliptical machine, sweating to death, muscles screaming, listening to worship music…. I realized that I felt better at that moment than I had in months. Since I was “exercising,” all the craziness of the world and the outside stuff couldn’t distract me. I couldn’t check Facebook while I’m huffing. I couldn’t remind myself of everything I need to clean, of all the laundry that was piling up. It was dedicated time that I could just quiet my soul.

If even just for an hour, I’d tuned out the world. And hopefully shed a few calories in the process.

So, instead of “giving up” a specific thing, I’m giving up an hour of my day each day to get my “sweat” on and focus on Jesus during that time. Whether it’s listening to worship music or reading the bible on my Kindle or just having quiet time, that’s what I’ll be doing.

I won’t get to the gym everyday. But I’m aiming to still give up an hour some way each day.

So there ya go. It probably goes against lots of “lent” rules, but since I don’t know anything of the rules, I guess it doesn’t really matter.


What about you? Are you “giving up” anything for the Lent season?