The Season of Lent

With the lent season quickly approaching, I have been contemplating over the past few weeks what is that I might give up. I have yet to decide. Upon hearing from others I began wondering if I was asking the right questions. Perhaps I should not be asking what I need to give up to spend more time with God but rather what can I add to my life that would develop my relationship with God?
I will be the first to admit that I am not very good at very many of the Spiritual Disciplines. For example, I am not very good at the meditative, solitude, prayer, reading the bible and simplistic disciplines. I wish I was much better, but the truth is I'm not. I am much better at the disciplines that don't require as much work for me. I get A+ for the stewardship and service disciplines because for me, those are where my gifts lie. I am ashamed to say that I often justify my lack of intimacy with God by saying that I am serving Him in other ways and that is all the time I can give to God right now. I make excuses.
For the past number of weeks I have been struggling where I am at in my faith and where prayer and reading God's word fit into my life. The choices I have made in the past number of months have been deliberate choices to fulfill my present life rather than my relationship with my Creator. I have neglected him on purpose. So I guess it's no wonder that I am feeling incomplete and dissatisfied with my current relationship with God. It's because I am not giving Him my all. I am not putting in the effort.
So for lent this year I am going to spend 30 minutes each day reading God's word and listening to what He has to say to me. Please feel free to keep me accountable as I can guarantee that I will stray at times. Thomas Merton says it nicely,

"Meditation has no point and no reality unless it is firmly rooted in life ."

So I pray that through the weeks of lent that my meditating in God's word and listening to his voice in my life will be firmly rooted in life and that these disciplines will not only last the 40 days of Lent, but would instead become a consistent practice for the rest of my life.

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." ~ Psalm 143:8