Who's Ready For Lent?

I am! To some of us who live in areas favored by Mother Nature, this Winter has been truly penitential. Still, there is something about this season of being at home, inward, cabin-fever inducing days that is conducive to self-examination. And Lent is the natural progression of this self-examination after the revelry of the holidays.

I have been pondering Lent for awhile, probably because I have the luxury of time with it's late arrival this year. With all the craziness of the past year, health scares, my father's death, I need every minute of Lent to soak it all in. I even thought about having a theme for this year's Lent to reflect this Scripture passage that has been on my heart and mind for awhile:

"Your inmost being must be renewed, and you must put on the new man." - Ephesians 4:23-29

When I pray this Scripture passage my challenge is identifying what is being a new man for me.  When I pray for my own conversion, what exactly am I asking God?  Where am I going with all of this?  I don't know, I hope that 40 days of Lent will answer that question ;-)

This also ties down very nicely with one of the prayers of the Liturgy of The Hours (feast of St. Stephen) that really jarred me into contemplating this new man -

 "Grant, Lord that we may imitate what we worship...."

We are made to worship, either ourselves, a created matter or another being, hopefully that another is God. When I was pondering this I thought of all the things that take up my time and compete for my attention. The counterfeit "gods" that I have created.  I need Lent to root that all out.

16 more days.  In the words of the Psalmist- My heart is ready, O God.