Let it Go

I was chatting with a friend and she brought up how next time she sees me, she'll be fasting because Lent starts tomorrow. I, of course, was like "Lent? But Christmas was like four days ago!" On the account that I have a skewed sense of time and the fast time, you know, passes, I hadn't even thought about what to fast from until last night. Firstly, I thought of the usual things: sweets? That would be easy. I'm not really a dessert person. Tumblr? Pinterest? Those would be hard to give up. Or I could give up, like, control. In my journal I literally have a list labeled LENT and it contains an array of nouns followed by question marks.
The control thing was a joke at first. Sort of like the "I'm giving up homework for Lent," but the more I thought about it, the more beneficial it seemed. One of my other friends told me "Fasting doesn't have to be something that's bad for you. It's about giving up something that's distracting." My desire for dictatorship over my life and my situations definitely distracts me from following God. I feel the constant need to plan ahead, running future (improbable) scenarios in my head, scheming, over-packing, etc. My plans leave little room for flexibility or trust. They're always centered around me with few chances of surprises, both pleasant and otherwise. Although, the way I'm always clutching at control makes most surprises unpleasant because they weren't in my plan. Is that really a good way to live? So, this Lent, I'm giving up control.
"Um, Julia? How does one give up control for Lent?" Honestly? No idea. And maybe that's the point? Jumping into a hole where I can't see the bottom, I haven't made any lists, and I don't have a game plan. I'm trying to hand the pen and clipboard to the real play maker. (Did I just make a sports reference? Wow. Giving up control already...)
I am not good at going with the flow unless that flow is my stream of consciousness so this will be hard for me and I'll probably slip up. A lot. And maybe wipe out a few times, but I really hope this will be a good opportunity to recenter my life and stop craving power. Please pray for me. If you have any book recommendations or Bible passages you think I should read, please message me or post them as a comment. I need all the help I can get!
As an aside: I will also be giving up Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter on the account that I waste like a billion hours on those things. So if I don't reblog your awesome pictures or favorite your tweets until after Easter, that is why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNGvD21u34I
(you thought this blog was going to be about Frozen, didn't you? Nope. Jesus stuff.)