Lent '09

This year for Lent, I'm going to do something different. Normally it is giving up something near and dear to me, so as to be closer to god. I remember giving up chocolate chip cookies (not sure how that applies) in high school, and more recently giving up TV or video games.

Another alternative for Lent is to actively do something to draw you closer to God. While doing devotions and reading the Bible daily are very good goals and something I want to do in life eventually, right now (and I'm talking the actual 40 days of lent) I have to be realistic and say that I honestly do not have the time, and the things taking up my time are all immovable, without a complete and disrupting life change (changing careers, dropping out of school, not finding a job, etc.).

Instead, what I've decided to do for Lent this year is to actively pray for peace, for all of God's children. Normally I'm not even the most peace-prone person, but I believe our country and our world are headed in divisive directions at the moment, and I don't understand it all. I want to try to understand the conflicts of all of the world's peoples, and pray for them to reach a peace in respect to each of those individual conflicts. I think God would want people to live in peace, and out of peace have a foundation for finding common ground in a relationship with him (some may disagree).

So it will be that I will try to learn about the various conflicts on earth (in Afghanistan, Darfur, Somalia, Iraq, Georgia, Chechnya, Israel/Palestine, Congo, etc.), and pray for each of them individually and for us as a race. I will utilize prayer by speaking directly to God, and seek personal peace as well. This is a very different theme for me.