One way we sin is by second-guessing or pre-judging God. He speaks but we ignore His direction because we think we know a better way already. We rely on our own minds, rather than the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

We are also easily distracted and that causes us to miss the God’s mark.

There is a famous experiment in visual perception. People were shown a video of some basketball players passing the ball back and forth. Viewers were asked to count the number of times the ball changed hands. Most people got that counting assignment right.

But meanwhile, walking between the basketball players, right on the court, was a woman carrying a huge umbrella. In other experiments a man in a bear suit walked along, then stopped to wave at the camera.

But the people concentrating on watching the basketball going back and forth NEVER SAW the extraordinary extra characters wandering among the players.

The scientists doing the experiment called it “inattentional blindness.” It’s there in front of you, but you fail to see it because you are distracted by something else.

The life around us creates this kind of distraction to our spiritual concentration hour after hour. In order to help us remember, during Lent some people change something in their routine. Perhaps they’ll move their watch to the other wrist. Or put the coffeemaker in a different spot in the kitchen. Or place something like a book or paperweight under their pillow, something that has to be removed before they can go to sleep.

As they bump against these “out of place” items each day, they’re reminded of their Lenten discipline: stop and say a prayer for someone, even someone in the news. Stop and recollect your day, and give thanks to the Lord. Or look for a way to notice the next person you meet and give them a kind word.

Take this Lent as your laboratory, to work on your spirituality as we approach Easter.