Lent

I’ve never given anything up for Lent. In my mind it was always something those who attended the Catholic church participated in. As far as I remember, my childhood church never endorsed or even suggested that we participate. When I moved to Boston many of the people who attended my church had at one time been Catholic, but for various reasons converted. Although they attended my church on Sundays and considered themselves Baptist, many of them continued to participate in Lent.

Over the years I have observed numerous friends and work colleagues participating in Lent and I really think it’s a wonderful thing. It’s about sacrifice and trusting in God to help you omit this item from your life.

I hate to say it, and I realize it may make me sound like a goody-goody, but every year on Ash Wednesday I would try to think of something I could give up, but I usually came to the same conclusion…there really isn’t anything that would be a big sacrifice for me to give up for 40 days. I don’t say that to sound like I’m so holy and better than those who participate in Lent. I say it because I guess I’m just not “addicted” (for lack of a better word) to anything. I love my morning tea, but I am confident that I could give it up without a problem (in fact, I usually only drink it when it’s cold outside. In the summer I stick to cold beverages. And there are several mornings where I don’t have time to drink it, so I don’t and I’m able to function completely fine throughout the day). I’m not a big soda drinker and at the most I’ll have 2 sodas a week. I’m not a big alcohol drinker and can easily go months without touching it. I love TV, but I really only watch for a couple of hours before bed, and recently I’ve turned to reading instead of TV. I decided that if I ever was going to participate in Lent it would be to give up something that would really be a sacrifice for me, otherwise it would be pointless and defeat the purpose of being a sacrifice. I will add here that I’m sure my family and close friends (specifically Joe) could easily come up with a list of things for me to give up for Lent…they know all of my faults that I’m in complete denial about).

So this year I’m giving up something. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks and God has really shown me that this is what I need to give up. So here it is…I’m going to stop playing FrontierVille on Facebook. I’m laughing even writing that…I know it’s ridiculous. I’m also going to give up FarmVille, but I only play that game once a week, so it won’t be a big deal. If you don’t play either of those games on Facebook, just know that they are totally addicting!

I started playing FrontierVille the day it came out. While I was working I obviously didn’t play at work, so I would only play at night after Ella was in bed. Now that I’m home I still limit my playing time, but I do play 2-3 times a day, and each time I play I think to myself, “There are so many other, more productive things, I could be doing with my time.” I am confident that after just a few days it will be like the game never existed (when we go on vacation I never play, so I have easily gone 1-2 weeks without playing). The first few days are going to be hard for me. I’ll check Facebook and see the little icon to the left and think, “I won’t actually play, I’ll just check to see how my Frontier is doing.” But don’t worry, I’ll pull myself together and not even look in on Frontier Katie, Frontier Joe and Frontier Ella.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s an addicting game! I feel like I have to check every day to see if there are new missions to accomplish, and if I miss playing for a few days I feel like I am so far behind my other FrontierVille neighbors that I have to play twice as much to catch up. I’m sure others don’t feel that way and think I’m ridiculous, but that’s how it is for me. I love games and I feel like I can’t stop playing a game until I’ve completely mastered it. The problem with FrontierVille is that you never really “master” it. The game just keeps going and going and there’s never really an end.

And I know someone is going to mention it, so I’ll go ahead and say it before they do. Yes, I considered giving up Facebook altogether, but in evaluating the situation my primary reason for even going to Facebook is to play these stupid games, so by eliminating them I am confident that I’ll reduce a significant amount of time spent on Facebook. Lets face it…most status updates really aren’t that exciting (no offense…and if any of my FB friends have noticed, that is the reason I have significantly reduced how many status updates I post).

So there you have it. I need your help to keep me accountable, especially if you’re one of my FrontierVille buddies. I’ll let you know how it goes.