Reinventing Lent

I’ve got some more snow storm photos and updates to post, but I’m a little behind… I’ll catch up, I promise!

Our church is doing a “reinventing lent” thing again this year, where those of us who are participating are making some sort of positive change for Lent, whether it’s giving something up or adding a new habit.  Our pastor is blogging about it as he goes along;  you can read about it here:  Lent at Seneca Creek.

I had initially decided to get back to some of my FlyLady routines for lent — hoping that the initial commitment of just 40 days would get me back on track for a longer period.  Our lives are so crazy that I keep missing the little things; so shining my sink daily and doing the “Swish & Swipe” every single day seemed like a pretty good habit to renew.  I’m not sure why our lives are so much crazier than everyone else’s.  Sometimes I wonder if it’s because we don’t have kids — everyone seems to assume that we can always drop everything instantly because we don’t have them.  However, I think (and my boss told me this morning that he agrees) that we might actually be busier without kids because people do assume that we don’t have anything to do and then book us for 10,000,000 events and tasks that they would never approach us with if we have kids, because they would assume that we couldn’t do a single one of them… because we have kids.  It’s a vicious cycle.

Back on subject….

So, with our lives being completely crazy and owned by everyone but us, I thought I would use Lent to get back to the basics and get my home in order.  Ok, ok — I’m not living in CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) yet, and by many standards my house probably looks pretty good, but I need to be keeping it up as a habit, not a “OMG the kitchen floor looks awful!!!” quick fix.  So back to the basics I go with forty days of “Swish & Swipe” and shining my sink.

And then……my very dear (and honest) friend Diane brought up a good point after some discussion last night at our small group bible study.  The thing that might make the biggest improvement in my life (and my stress levels) right now would be learning to leave work at work.  I get every other Friday off, and yet I spend the whole day checking my work email and answering questions over Sametime because I feel bad that people might have to wait until Monday (ZOMG!!) to get their issues resolved.  At first I tried explaining to her that that’s why I check in on my days off and in the evenings — it’s not for me, it’s for them.  But she brought up a good point:  I obviously can’t change this habit for me because I just don’t have the self-preservation bone in me… but can I change it for God?  I’m not even sure now that she said those exact words — but that’s what it sounded like in my soul.  And we had just had a sermon that morning about identifying our Goliath (the thing that controls us)…… and doing something about it.

How could I let my work be my Goliath and control such of my life to the point that I can’t put it down or say “no”.  Could work be my crack cocaine?  It very well might be.  So (starting today), I’m also going to leave work at work for Lent.  A couple of ground rules though — I do sometimes have to do conference calls with other countries in the evenings due to the time difference, and if I leave early I do have to make the time up in the evenings or on a Friday.  But with those exceptions, I am not going to work at home — no checking email or logging in to Sametime –  unless it is prearranged and necessary.  No checking in before bedtime, no checking my email before I go in to the office in the morning.  Work stays at work.

It’s not going to be easy, because I’ve formed a lot of bad habits (like *needing* to check my email before I head in to the office in the morning because I’d rather prepare for the crap sandwich sitting on my desk than be surprised by it).  But if I can do this, then I could spend that time I would be working by doing other things — like reading my bible, praying, or shining my sink.  And maybe I can carry *that* beyond Lent, and affect a much more positive change in my life than just getting my home back in order.

So here goes nuthin’…..

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