I've been thinking about...

...Chocolate.

Alright, truth be told, I’m almost always thinking about chocolate. I am a choc-o-holic with a sweet tooth a mile long. Which makes what I’m about to say all the more painful — for the Season of Lent I am (gulp) giving up chocolate.

I figured I had been making my standard joke a little too often lately (“I hate it when Valentine’s Day is so close to Lent because it always makes me feel sorry for those folks who gave up chocolate.”). So I’m giving up chocolate myself.

Lent is a season of preparation. A forty day period (sorta, we’ll get there in a second) from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday where we get right with God. During Lent we turn away from those distractions and everyday static that keeps us from listening for God’s holy word in our lives. Some folks do this by giving up something (eating meat, smoking, having chocolate). Others take the more modern approach of taking on something new and beneficial (praying daily, exercising, reading the Bible).

I alternate between the two practices. Last year I took on working out for 30-minutes a day. This year, I am (sigh) giving up chocolate for the 40+ days.

If you count carefully, you’ll see that the duration of time from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday is in fact more than 40 days. That is because, technically speaking, Sunday’s in Lent don’t count. Sunday’s are our day as a community to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and so they fall out of the total count.

Through these 40+ days may we open ourselves to all that God is calling us to be, and listen once more to the still speaking voice of God that calls out to us. Even without chocolate...

Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian