Top 10 Things I Wish I Could Give Up for Lent
This year I decided to give up snacks for Lent. With my efforts failing more often than not, I’ve come up with a long list of what I wish I’d given up instead.
10. House cleaning. This one I would willingly doing for Lent and beyond.
9. Being an unpublished fiction writer. I’m working diligently on this one. But parts of accomplishing it are beyond my control.
8. A sentimental attachment to stuff. My closets would be much happier if this had been my choice. Plus, it would make #10 more feasible.
7. An illogical desire for a swimming pool. It’s a luxury I can do without and an unwanted, extra task since the Man of Steel’s take on it is, “Go ahead and do it…as long as you’re the one who cleans it.”
6. Messy closets and dresser drawers. See #8.
5. Impatience. Except I want to give this one up immediately, as in right now, rather than spend 40 days grinding away at it.
4. Self-righteousness. Mom used to call it a tendency to pat myself on my back. But there’s more to it than that. Like a tendency to elevate myself at the expense of others. A tendency I wish was easier to shake.
3. Guilt. The unfounded, irrational kind that sucks away energy that could be better spent on lifting others up rather than mentally beating yourself down.
2. Worry. The ever-present companion of all parents. Even after their kids are grown, gone, and on their own. The slightest sniff of distress in their lives and the worry meister rears its ugly head.
1. A divided heart. Each time we or friends and loved ones leave, whether from town to town or from this world to the next, my heart breaks. A piece of it is left behind where we once lived or travels on with those leaving me behind. Forty days of Lent spent contemplating what Jesus gave up for the world are not enough to repair the brokenness, nor should they be. Instead these 40 days call me to contemplate the glory yet to come. The eternal day when all who hope in Christ will be reunited and every divided heart will be made whole.
What do you wish you’d given up for Lent? Leave a comment.
