Lent

I'm not Catholic, but I am a Lutheran which is kind of like Catholic-light (the beliefs without the rituals and rules.  My pastors would roll their eyes and I am pretty sure Martin Luther just rolled over in his grave).  In the Lutheran church because we follow a church calendar, we do observe the season of Lent.

A little church calendar education for those who are curious...
Lent is a 40 (ish) day period preceding Easter.  It is meant to reflect the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert without food, resisting the temptations of Satan.  Some people decide to take certain things out of their lives during the season of Lent as a way to emulate Jesus' ability to resist the Devil those 40 days.  In addition (and this is my understanding) the act of removing a temptation for our lives give us the opportunity to reflect of Jesus' sacrifice of his life on the cross for us.  For example, if you give up coffee, every time you crave or want coffee you would think about Jesus and his ultimate sacrifice.

Most of the time, people give up foods like fast food, coffee, alcohol, chocolate, etc.  And I have done those things in the past.  This year, my low-iodine diet will start about a week after Easter so I have decided I don't want to give up any food items for Lent.  I may be a little glutenous, if I am going to be honest.

After several discussions with Phil, I have decided that this year for Lent, I have given up the Snooze button. 

As I have mentioned in the past, getting up has been a struggle for me for a while.  I wake up at 6 in the morning, take my thyroid medicine and then fall back asleep.  The alarm goes off every 15 minutes for the next hour and then I finally get out of bed around 7, freaking out because I slept WAY too late and usually end up a little late to work.

I'm over it.  I'm sick of it.  And what better motivation than Jesus.  :)

I figure in the morning when I want really badly to hit the snooze and fall back asleep, I can think to myself, "Jesus resisted the Devil.  I can resist 15 minutes of sleep."

Don't you think?

Day 1 went well.  Granted it took me 30 minutes to actually WAKE UP and get out of bed, but I didn't go back to sleep.  And I was able to get ready at a leisurely pace, make the bed, get my stuff together, and get to work early (shock of all shocks).

We'll see how this goes when the endocrinologist starts messing with my thyroid dosage.

Do you observe Lent?  What are you giving up?