What We Are Trying for Lent This Year
Because New Years Resolutions aren't going as well as we hoped
As a kid, I always felt immense pressure to “give something up” for Lent. One year, I gave up pepperoni, which maybe affected me once a week when we ate pizza. A commendable sacrifice, I know! Another year, I challenged myself a bit more and gave up dessert. This seemed to me, at the time, to be the biggest cross a child could bear.
We are meant to “give things up” as a reminder of the forty days Jesus spent in the desert. We are supposed to emulate his sacrifice and partake in a new practice that will bring us closer to God, or center God in our daily lives. This could come in the form of fasting, or giving up something significant for the forty days of Lent.
Maybe it does take something as extreme as fasting to re-center our lives around God. Muslims fast during Ramadan to reaffirm important values such as humility, piety, and patience. They believe that the practice of fasting makes a person stronger in the face of temptation, a sentiment to which Christians can relate as we read the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). Others may have had different experiences, but as a Christian, I have personally never been encouraged to try fasting. I can imagine, however, it is very difficult to not center God while fasting. If you have to keep reminding yourself why you are not eating when you are hungry, then you must find yourself continually pulling your focus back to God.
In a world that is not designed for us to focus on living Godly lives 24/7, it takes consistent, devoted effort to find ways to strive for holiness. Sacrifices are encouraged, but fasting is not the only method of prioritizing God. In recent years, I have turned to “taking on” new practices that remind me to center God in the midst of the everyday. I think that taking on a new habit also cultivates spiritual growth and inspires godly values. As we make some sort of sacrifice - fasting or otherwise - we create room for new daily practices that will center our lives around God just a little bit more.
And how convenient that the beginning of Lent often falls near-ish to the start of the year! January can be a bit of a burnout period after the holiday season has passed. If you are looking to start some new habits (or if you’re like me, and your New Years Resolutions haven’t gone as planned), perhaps the discipline of Lent will inspire us to make resolutions with the sole purpose of leading more holy lives.
Things We Are Trying for Lent, or New New Years Resolutions
Journaling for Beginners. I have tried to keep a dutiful journal more times than I can count, but I just can’t seem to hack it. Journaling has so many benefits though. It can help us to release and process emotions, and it can generally increase our awareness. My former roommate moved out in the fall and left a bunch of tiny empty notebooks behind, so I think I will keep one of those next to my bed and try to write down literally a few words or sentences each day. Possible prompts could be: How can I serve others today? Which godly values would I like to center more? Where am I encountering temptations in my life?
Re-purposing stuff I already have. In this sense, I guess I would be giving up buying new things? This is a huge trend on social media right now. I don’t need new things! I want to try organizing my drawers with cardboard boxes, clean out old jars to store leftovers, and re-organize my closet so I don’t forget what I already own. Hopefully this will help me be more content with what I have.
Reading instead of YouTube. I love to watch YouTube videos before going to bed! But I must say that this quickly turns into scrolling, and my deteriorating attention span doesn’t hold up for the video anyways. I think reading is a much better practice to train the mind to focus and be diligent in the face of constant distraction (or the temptations of Instagram). Besides, reading can be fun and beneficial in so many ways. I would like to read books that will open me up to new ideas, explicitly religious or not.
Being content on my own. Even when I am by myself, I am constantly texting friends or checking social media. This Lent, I would like to practice being alone and doing things that involve true silence (reading, maybe). I would like this to help me be content with the peace that God gives us. I hope I can be still and know that He is God!
Not eating whatever I want. “Treat yourself” mentality is so prevalent in our culture, and I love a little treat as much as the next person. I want to try practicing more discipline and eating more foods that will nourish my body and mind in the long-run, rather than satisfying a craving in the moment. Maybe this act of being intentional about my food will help decrease my need for instant gratification and help me understand that good habits aren’t always easy.
I hope you found something on the list that piqued your interest. Maybe it’s best for me to really buckle down and devote myself to one of these things, rather than trying everything. After all, I am a very average Episcopalian, and one person can only take on so much. Taking on one faithful practice that pulls my focus back to God each day is probably better than trying to complete a bunch of new tasks that stress me out if I can’t get around to them.
Annie and I wish you all a very mindful start to your Lenten seasons.
For this month’s “Earthly Delights” segment, I will be sharing the types of social media content I have been enjoying in 2025. I have been a person on social media for about thirteen years now, and honestly by this point, most content makes me feel terrible. I don’t want to see any more perfect interior decorating, cooking meals from scratch every night, and “Get Ready With Me”. So I have started to devise a list of good content.
Favorite social media content of 2025 (so far):
Duck content (duck videos, duck memes, anything with ducks)
“Las Culturistas” Podcast with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Little videos that my friends make
Male celebrities riding Lime Bikes and Scooters (Timothee Chalamet, Joe Alwyn, Harry Styles, who will be next!!)
“The Desert Monk” YouTube Channel - Annie shared this one with me! There’s a lovely monk on YouTube sharing snapshots of his life in ministry, his love of nature, and his journey building his own organ.
Behind the scenes footage from the High School Musical movies
Episcopalian memes (self plug)
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27
The Bible’s consistent reminders to “not be afraid” seem impossible to heed when our lives are as crazy as they are and the world is in its current state. This passage calls us to root our existence in a peace that we cannot inherently understand.
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