Lent 2018: Am I Doing Enough?

Lent 2018

Name: Chris Park
Lenten Commitment: Do QT every day and keep a QT journal to reflect on the day’s Scripture. Also give up TV, YouTube, anime, and manga

For Lent this year, I gave up reading manga, and watching television, YouTube, and anime because I spent so much of my time on these activities. I also decided to do all of my QTs and start a QT journal so that I could understand more about God and the role He plays in my life.

I specifically remember thinking to myself that I really did not want to do this and internally complaining about how difficult this would be. I doubted whether this would even help me because when I had tried doing QT before Lent I would not even be able to remember what the passage was about or how I felt about it just a couple of days later.

And to be honest, it has been pretty difficult. For the first couple of days, I forgot to do my QT and watched YouTube videos or even did my homework. Things like television, YouTube, and homework are an outsized part of my life and have been hindering me from being able to try harder for God for a long time.

And because we had mid-winter break last week, it was really easy to get bored or sidetracked. During this time, I broke my commitment pretty easily, because I did not really think of or care about the promise that I had made with myself and with God.

But, I decided that I wanted to keep my promise to myself and God by thinking about Him. I started to make myself do the QT during the day and take more time to reflect on it. I have made progress little by little – setting aside time to make up the QTs that I missed and for future QTs.

Still, it is pretty hard to keep focused even when I tell myself to do the QT or when I try to reflect. But I am going to use this experience to try to get myself more disciplined in my faith.

Putting God’s Word, through QT, in front of everything else going on in life is something that I can apply to other areas of my faith like Sunday worship. Trying to focus on the message given instead of letting my mind wander on Sunday is something that I should be doing not only for myself, but also for God. This is the mindset that I am trying to improve upon during this year’s Lent and I think I have started to find my way into honestly being able to do this.

While Lent is going on, I will focus more on the Word and God, but I will try to continue this even after the time has passed. And while I am not sure I will fully succeed, I hope I can grow, not regress, as more time passes. Mistakes were made, and I will make more as Lent goes on, but I will stay positive and try to keep going forward with this commitment that I have made.

Editor’s note: Chris also wrote a Lent Reflection in 2017. To read that post, click here.

This post is a part of DSYG’s Lent Reflections series meant to educate and inspire readers on the season of Lent and its value in any Christian’s relationship with Christ. For more information on this series, click here.
To read more posts in this year’s series, click here.