What I'm giving up for Lent

published March 17, 2011

in the Stockton Sentinel

Stockton, Kansas

            In my column last week, I said that playing piano is never a waste of my time. That prompted me to think about other things in my life that have that kind of relevance. And that got me thinking about how seldom I allow myself the time to actually enjoy those things. There is something wrong with that picture.

            Why can’t I make time to sit down and play the piano or read a book for an hour or two without feeling guilty and chiding myself about the time I have “wasted” when I had much more “important things” to do?

            Because this deep thinking took place last week, prior to the start of Lent, I chose to devote myself during this Lenten season to a time of personal inventory. My goal is to identify things that waste my time and keep me from enjoying the things that mean the most to me. To further commit myself to this task, I’m letting you know about it so that you can hold me accountable.

As I said, this all began by thinking of things that are important to me, things that I do not consider a waste of time. To focus my thoughts, I named the first five things that came to my mind to complete the following sentence:  “For me, any time spent _______ is not a waste of time.” (You might want to try this yourself. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind?)

Here’s my list; you already know the first one:  1) For me, any time spent playing the piano (or organ) is not a waste of time; 2) For me, any time spent reading a book is not a waste of time; 3) For me, any time spent playing with my grandchildren is not a waste of time; 4) For me, any time spent walking outdoors is not a waste of time; 5) For me, any time spent in the company of family or friends is not a waste of time.

Naming those five things was easy and took just a few seconds. The problem is, I don’t allow myself the time to enjoy these things because there is always something else that needs my attention. That brings me to the more difficult part of my Lenten exercise.

For each of the five things I’ve named, I intend to identify a time-waster that I can either minimize or eliminate entirely. Ideally, if I devalue the things I “waste time” doing, I should discover more time to do the things that mean the most. For some reason, that part of the personal inventory is more difficult, and it may take the entire period of Lent to identify.

The older I get, the more accelerated my life has become. The days seem shorter, and the list of promises to myself just gets longer. Someone once remarked that “the main disease of old age is regret.” I don’t want to suffer from that disease.   

Perhaps I’ll keep you posted of my progress in a future column during this Lenten journey. That is, unless I determine that writing this column is a waste of time!