My Lent Journey

I know I'm a couple days late on this. Lent Started on Wednesday and I wanted to post this blog then but it didn't get done till now... This going to be a long post but I'm sharing things that are really close to my heart.

So here it is. For those who don't know Lent is probably the second biggest season in the church (2nd to Christmas of course). Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter. Usually people are encouraged to give up something for Lent. For example one year I gave up drinking cokes (which was one of the best decisions I made actually). Anyways, when you give something up for Lent, or in some cases take something up, like praying more, it is supposed to bring you closer to God. The idea is that for 40 days you you give up something that distracts you from God or do something new to get more connected with God. This last part has been lost to a lot of people who use lent as a "shorter new years resolution". Like with me and drinking coke. I was in 8th grade and I didn't want to give up cokes for a whole year which I still don't really drink cokes, so good can come out of this but it didn't bring many any close to God.

That brings us to this post. This year I have decided to share my "Lent Goals" with all of you whoever you are. I've been inspired to do this partly because of a book I just got done called The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg I highly recommend this book. In part of the book John talks about being open about our sin and how we become more of the person God made us for if we are more open about our sins/troubles with others. Another reason I decided to do this was because one of my "Lent Goals" is to be more vulnerable and open to others and I figured this would be a good way to do it because some of these goals, like the one I just mentioned, are going to be difficult for me and they are not easy and comfortable to talk about. So here they are.

1. Read the bible everyday- This is probably a more common one. But one that I think is very important. I think as a Christian I should at least spend some time everyday reading the bible. Whether that is reading 5 chapters of Romans or reading my favorite Psalm. Some days I can read 5 or more chapters of whatever part of the bible I'm reading at time (which right now is Romans) and then some days I'm either so tired from work or its just one of those days where I don't want to do anything productive and I can't even read a verse. Part of the reason I wanted to do this year of service was to get more into the bible and the past month or so I haven't been and I wan't to get back on track. Whether it's 5 chapters or just a verse. 
2. Communicate my emotions better- Just typing this was a big challenge haha. I know that I'm terrible communicating my feelings and emotions with others especially those close to me. I'm gong to be posting a blog all about this in the next couple of days. 
3. No porn- And finally the the unspeakable one. Again I will post a blog about this one later on. 

Now that ya'll know what my goals are I ask for your prayers. Prayers for strength, peace, courage and for perseverance. I chose these three because I think they will all help shape me into the man I want to be or the me that God made me to be. At the end of Lent I will post another blog talking about the things I learned or I kinda like a report of how it all went. 

If you would like to talk more about any of these things please email me and I would love to talk with you and if you would like prayers for your own Lent journey please let me know! Thanks and God Bless!