Lent started early this year. With the east coast up to its eyebrows in snow, the Lenten season was underway.

I only learned recently that every year Fat Tuesday comes to an abrupt end at midnight. New Orleans police shut down the Mardi Gras festivities promptly at 12 am in reverence for Ash Wednesday. The stroke of midnight is the moment Bourbon Street revelers must give it up.

We always think of “giving up” something for Lent. Some people give up meat. Others give up sweets, or alcohol, or television. If you want to face a real Lenten challenge try giving up your cell phone for forty days! [At this point you might want to make a karaoke moment and ask what people are “giving up.”] But even that might be enough to get you in a true Lenten mood.

Preacher Kimberly Long tells this story a…