Lent and taking care of our eternal souls

A friend of mine would often remark that he liked the season of Lent. He would add, however, that the only thing wrong with Lent was that it was 39 days too long.
There may be a little of that sentiment in each one of us. Ash Wednesday is actually welcomed as we go in large numbers to church and receive ashes. Then comes the difficult part — challenging ourselves to grow spiritually in order to become more the person God has created us to be.
There is often a gnawing hunger in the human heart to grow spiritually. Complacency in our faults may have its attractiveness at first, but in the long run it does not satisfy. Deep down inside we yearn to be the person God calls us to be and who we, deep down inside, want to be. As St. Augustine wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”
We are drawn by our very nature to seek God. The human heart, in one way or another, looks at this life with all its wonders and still asks: “Isn’t there something more than this?” This world, even with all its pleasures, does not satisfy because the human spirit is made for, and hungers for, eternity and this temporary world cannot satisfy that craving.
Created things may amuse, or distract, or temporary make us forget our inner emptiness, but we are made for the Creator, not the created.
Lent is the time when we can look at ourselves, as honestly as possible, and examine where we have forgotten who we really are and what we are truly created for. It is a time to pause, reflect, and grow. Isn’t it amazing that we can give such attention to maintaining our car, changing the oil and attending to its maintenance, but for most of us it will last only a few years. Or some give such attention to our bodies, dieting and exercising, but as it is written in the psalms, it will last “70 years or 80 for those who are strong.” (Ps 90:10) Yet we do not give the same sort of attention to our soul which is eternal. A million years from now we will still be alive. How are we taking care of our eternal soul?