Today marks the first day of Lent (if you’re Coptic. Still working on that one?) and I’m pumped. I’ve only really been excited about Lent for maybe the past two years. Everything before that was just “countdown til Easter.” So now that I’m at the wise old age to really appreciate this time of year, I’m grabbing the bull by the horns!
There is one thing that I want to make sure I do differently this year. After I started learning and realizing that fasts weren’t just about food, I made an effort to pick up new habits and create new schedules with hopes that I would be a better person at the end of it. Like as if I was going on Extreme Makeover and would come out with a smaller nose when it was over. But this year I started thinking about how maybe I need a new perspective, not just new habits. Sure, I want to be a better person. But I also think I’ve been concentrating on myself a bit too much these days. Like “when will I be like this?” or “when will I stop being like this?” or “why am I like that in the first place?” and blah blah blah. So this year, I’m thinking of taking the focus off myself and putting it on Someone who deserves it.
This is what I figure: if I’m always thinking about how I can spend time with God, how I can learn more about Him, or what can I do to respond to His great love for me…then I’ll naturally be too busy to worry about other stuff. It’s the concept of emptying a bucket of water by throwing rocks into it. Instead of just thinking of things to cut out and give up, I’ll use everything I have to put the spotlight on Christ.
I have a feeling it’ll be nice not thinking about myself for a while. Because really, it was never about me in the first place. God was just kind enough to let me figure that out on my own.
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