Wow, it’s been over a year since I’ve posted anything on this blog.  I sort of resigned myself to the fact that this blog was dead, because I haven’t been inspired to write anything in it for awhile.  But this morning as I was praying a lot of thoughts were going through my mind and I felt a need to extrovert it all.  So here I am.

This year for lent I gave up Facebook, Twitter, Bloglines and Korean dramas.  This sounds lame but it’s actually been quite a challenge.  When I’m bored and have nothing else to do, I check Facebook, or watch the next episode in a Korean drama.  When Will’s not home and I’m lonely, I’ll read the latest blog posts on my feed.  So when I gave these things up, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands.  And really, it’s understandable.  My life isn’t super busy – I work, eat and have small group once a week.  What am I doing the rest of the time?  I’m online!

My prayer life has really sucked over the last year.  When I think about it, nothing hugely traumatic or difficult was going on in my life.  And I think that’s exactly why I didn’t pray.  I didn’t have a felt need to do so.  I’ve written about this before, but it was so much easier for me to maintain a constant prayer life when I was in ministry – both because of my schedule, and because I had a larger felt need to pray.  I clearly needed God’s power and provision to lead people and for His hand on their lives.  But in my day to day life, there isn’t a big felt need for prayer (for me at least).

Well, after I gave up all that for lent, I had tons of time on my hands, and so I ended up praying.  I’m ashamed to admit that until now I had been spending about once a week with God.  At first it was difficult to concentrate.  I didn’t know what to pray about.  But now, two weeks into Lent, I feel a new awakeness of spirit and awareness of God.  Nothing has changed – no drastic needs – but I feel God with me.  My spirit connects with God when I spend time with Him.  I realize I have not made space for God in my life.  And I have numbed my soul with other things so much so that even when I did pray it was hard to wake myself out of my spiritual slumber.

It’s been a great season for me, and I only hope it continues after Easter.

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