An Attempt At Relevance

And we’re back…..

It’s been a couple of months since my last post and quite a bit longer since my last post of any substance.  But I have thought about the blog and what I want it to be and I figure since I started blogging last Lent what better time than now to get back into the habit.  Click through to read about the blog, random goings on and what I’ll be giving up this Lenten season.

As Lent drew closer, I started thinking about what I liked about last year and what I think I can learn during Lent this year.  Last year I didn’t give up anything, I added 3 things.  I wanted to blog everyday, write at least one song and exercise at least 30 minutes per day.  I managed to do 2 out of 3 (blogging and songwriting) and came away with a sense of accomplishment and just enough disappointment to want to do better this year.

As I thought more about last year, I also realized that I miss blogging.  I’m not a fantastic writer by any means but I do like getting my thoughts written down and put out there for anyone to read if they are so inclined.  I’m currently travelling for work  5 days a week and I also think blogging will be a good way to pass time and to keep others in the loop with my thoughts on current events, local sports teams, travel in America (specifically Texas for the next couple of months) and anything else I think may be worth writing down.  I’m hoping to post at least once a week and hopefully broaden the spectrum of my blog topics as time goes on.  Hopefully, it will something you enjoy reading but I’ll be glad just to have another hobby.

Speaking of writing, I will be adding one thing this year to my daily routine for Lent – a prayer journal.  The journal (and challenge to keep a prayer journal) was given to me at Awaken this past Sunday.  I’m pretty excited about this because I think it will give me a new perspective on prayer.  When I pray now, it usually ends up being pretty similar to a grocery list (Thank you for blah, please be with blah, I need some help with blah and so on and so forth).  I rarely pray where I am actually having a conversation with God and telling God what’s really bothering me or making me happy or just on my mind at the moment.  Every once in a while I have one of those prayers and I always feel my best afterwards.  In those moments, I always know that my fears and hopes and questions will all be taken care of in one way or the other.  I’m hoping to have more of those times because of this prayer journal.

As for what I’m giving up, I’m again taking a three-pronged approach although that wasn’t initially the plan.  On Sunday, the idea was to give up fried foods which would have been pretty tough.  Then last night I decided to tack on red meat but it still didn’t feel like enough.  Tonight I found the final piece.  As I was eating dinner, I realized that I love eating chips.  Specifically tortilla chips with salsa at any Tex-Mex place but I really will eat any kind at almost any time.  At work, I practically eat a bag of chips as part of every lunch.  I definitely eat tons of chips any time I eat Tex-Mex and I have stopped in at a gas station and bought some chips even though I only needed gas on multiple occasions.  So I decided that I would also give up chips too.  Its going to be tough.  I hope its tougher than I can imagine.  I want to be forced to lean on the prayer journal and other parts of my life to get me through it.  I want to struggle and fight and try to justify why its okay to cheat “just this once”.  But I mostly want to succeed.  So here I go, off on another Lenten journey.  It’s gonna be an interesting 6 weeks.

Stay classy.