I must admit that I have never been so excited about the arrival of Easter. I mean I have been counting down the days for the past two weeks. The sad thing is that it had nothing to do with celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Even though, I attend church almost every week and am quite involved at my church,I totally lost sight of the meaning of Lent. This year, I decided to give up something BIG for Lent so I gave up eating at my favorite restaurant, McDonald's. I usually go to McDonald's at least once a day and it's sad to admit that the people know me and my order depending on the time of day: sausage Mcgriddle and a large sweet tea for breakfast, a hamburger happy meal with an orange drink for lunch, and a #2 with no cheese and a diet coke for dinner. So for the past 40 days, I have not eaten any food from McDonald's and have been counting the days until I could. Last night, I even tried to stay up until 12 so that I could get a #2 with no cheese and a diet coke but I feel asleep. When I awoke this morning the first thing on my mind was....you guessed it....McDonald's. In fact, as I'm typing this post, I'm also sipping on a large sweet tea from Mickey Dee's and I've already eaten my sausage Mcgriddle. After church, I plan on having my Easter lunch at my favorite restaurant. As I reflect on the past 40 days, I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, I'm so proud of myself for accomplishing my goal. However, when I think about the Lent season and Easter, I wonder how have I grown closer to God by giving up McDonald's? I realize that growing closer to God was never my goal. It was really all about exercising self-discipline. So I've decided to challenge myself for another 40 days but this time, I'm going to intentionally focus on my relationship with God. I'm giving up 30 minutes of t.v. and replacing it with reading the Bible.
7 comments:
Way to redeem yourself in the end there. I was shaking my head the whole time. Leave it to you to somehow work McDonald's into Easter. I love your goal for the next 40 days. Now you can grow closer to God and have your Mickie D's too ;)
It really does not matter what you tried to achieve by giving up McDonald's. You grew closer to God just by the achievement. And look, you are even reading the bible for the next 40 days. If the experience did not bring you closer to God, you would not have set time aside to read to Bible. Everyone who accomplish the goal achieves discipline. Hence, it brings you closer to God because you would not have made the sacrifice if not for him.
You may not have gotten closer to God during Lent but you probably bought yourself 5 more years (by staying away from McDonalds) of life to worship him.
all He asks is that we take steps towards Him... He'll more than meet us halfway. Kudos on your endeavors
I LOVED this post. Reading about how strong you were for 40 days and 40 nights, and then your utter pleasure at being reunited with your favorite foods at McDonald's made me totally smile.
It also made me very hungry. Damn it! :)
-Francesca
Good plan! Way to recover! (Sorry I havent been by in a while...but you know I will always give you comment love...better late than never!)
I know exactly what you mean! I gave up chocolate for Lent, and I was literally counting the minutes until 12:01 AM on Easter Sunday so I could eat some! Ha! But I really like your idea of reading the Bible for 30 minutes a night -- so much so that I think I may try to do the same Thanks for the inspiration!
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