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.
