Contemplating Lent

Lemme start by saying that Mormons don't do Lent. It is something Christians picked up in the first few centuries after the New Testament, but it isn't in the Bible itself, except for the actual deed Lent is based on: Christ fasting for forty days in the wilderness before His death and resurrection. But some Mormons observe it anyway.

I have started a number of times, but the first time I decided to observe Lent was the only time I was even remotely successful. I went meatless from Ash Wednesday to Easter Morning, except for five or six occasions when I chose to eat meat or had no other option at someone else's house. It was an interesting exercise, mostly living on cold cereal, salads, pasta, cheese, and beans.

For once, I thought of Lent before Fat Tuesday and decided to remind myself what it's about. I started by listing the dates of Lent on my whiteboard and then a lot of goals I could set for myself. Then I Googled "Mormon Lent" and just "Lent." Looking up websites from religions that do and don't observe it, why it is and isn't observed by different sects, and what Latter-day Saints who observe it choose to do.

My initial list of goals were all secular in nature. Improvements, whether giving something bad up or taking on something good. They would improve my body and/or my mind. New Year's resolutions are for the secular stuff, and I'm still doing two small, easily-achievable tasks every day. I am very happy about this, and I gladly pounce on those tasks at a minute past midnight so I get them out of the way asap. (No job, night owl ... might as well take care of them in the wee small hours.)

But what about my spirit?

I haven't spent much time on my spiritual self. I spent years going through the motions at church, and I have done what I was told for brief periods of time, but I always fell off the wagon: forgot to pray, couldn't focus on scripture study, slept in on Sundays. I prayed for help to create structures around prayer, scripture reading, and church attendance, and maybe I got that help, but I still didn't achieve anything in the long run.

The one thing Lent has going for it is an end date. (Though I am contemplating a bait-and-switch, where I establish a good habit during Lent and then keep it going after Easter. That's the best-case scenario.) It's like a long plane ride. You're stuck in a metal tube six miles in the air, it's loud, you're squashed in with hundreds of other people, and you just want to be there already. It's tolerable at best and utterly miserable at the worst, but that plane will land. Easter will arrive. I have managed to accomplish a goal during Lent before, so I know I can do it again. So even if I don't carry on after, if I can accomplish (or even just mostly accomplish) something good during that time, I will feel like I met my goal.

I have about eighteen days to decide what kind(s) of goals to set, how many things to do, how I will quantify success and/or failure, how to track progress ... all that stuff. I'm still in the brainstorming stage tonight, since I just thought of it a few hours ago.