So Long, Sweet Tea

I don't do Lent. Um, except that I am this year.

One of the pastors at our church was asking if anyone was giving up on something for Lent, even though we are of a Christian denomination that does not participate in Lent. I think it's something we can do anyway.

If you're unfamiliar with Lent, Here's what the all-knowing Wikipedia says,

"Lent is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ."

So I told the pastor (who, by the way, is younger than me, but that's neither here nor there) that I should give up Sweet Tea.
Sweet Tea is my crack. I'm a tea junkie. I need a daily fix. When I went to Scotland 2.5 years ago I took along caffeine pills to make sure I didn't go through withdrawl.

Now, someone said I could simply switch to decaffeinated tea, except that I tend to prefer tea-flavored sugar to sugared tea. It's not the caffeine that's an issue for me. It's the sugar.

So, for the next...6 weeks (OMG, seriously? SIX WEEKS???) I will be tea free.

I'm writing this yesterday (Tuesday) and my final tea is sitting pretty much empty before me. I had no idea it was my last when I ordered it from the Crack House Chick-Fil-A this morning. I would have spent more time with it. I would have enjoyed it more. I may have to keep my cup to make myself feel better. I'm not joking. I'm sweating like an addict just thinking about it (okay, maybe I'm not sweating, but I will have a very hard time with this).

So, you have my permission until Easter to ask to see what's in my cup and make sure it's NOT tea. If it is, you may tsk-tsk me and slap my wrist.

So long, dear friend. We shall meet again soon...


(Just as an FYI - I do think doing anything that will bring you closer to Christ is awesome, regardless of time of year. I don't think it has to be something seriously sacrificial or something as lame as tea...but to each his own. The point is that you are making a sacrifice in order to pray more and bring yourself awareness of where your relationship with God is.)