Almost every year since 2001, I have given up coffee for Lent. I remember the first year I did it, I honestly didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep my commitment. As you probably know, part of the idea of giving up something for Lent is remembering the sacrifice of Christ throughout your day. Though it may sound odd to read that, I always liked it. I remember one moment in particular when I wanted to stop at Starbucks on my way to something and then realized, “oh yeah…”. I drove to my destination reflecting about some worthy things with nothing in the cupholder.
Anyway, giving up coffee wasn’t so bad. It was cool, the one year, this gentlemen from my church and I gave it up together and our deal was to meet at Starbucks on Easter Sunday at the break of dawn. It was the best Easter Dawn service I’d been to – lol. Anyway, it turns out, my addiction to coffee is more psychological then physiological. It’s true, I’m a coffee snob and if there isn’t good coffee (like at church before I brewed my own), then I’ll drink tea, or water, or rain water from the gutter.
Throughout the years, I’d add various devotionals, readings and every year I’d read the gospels through. I noticed last year, these practices started growing stale for me. Giving up coffee was getting easier. I don’t really eat that much chocolate and I’m not a big dessert person but I added that to the list.
Technological fasts never made that much sense to me. I use email the way a carpenter uses a hammer. If I was still playing Jetman on Facebook, then I’d consider it but it’s about relationships for me and now that all my worlds have collided on there, it’s not as fun as it used to be. Those that give up Facebook, Twitter, etc. God bless them, it just doesn’t connect with me.
So what am I doing? It’s hard to explain but it looks something like this: Reflection, People and Responsibility (I admit I was tempted to use ‘P’ alliteration of Perspective, People and Prosperity but the latter one has more to do with the idea of being more responsible).
Some of these are hard to explain and I don’t think I’ll be able to articulate through blogging. In “Reflection, I’m using various books, prayer guides and devotionals throughout. It’s a bit. But whatever I have to give up for the extra time for the reading and reflection becomes what I am fasting from. I think this will bug me more and thus be more sacrificial than my previous fasts.
Regarding “People”, in short, I need to be more intentional with spending more time and showing more love to those that I do not normally. It’s hard to describe this on this type of forum without sounding either snobby or self-righteous but here’s how I came to it. Christ sacrificed his life for people and I feel convicted that I need to sacrifice more of my time with people. This includes strangers, old friends, those hurting and many others. Also, I want to be more intentional with the quality of my relationships, this includes the repairing and reconciling of a few of them.
The last one, “Responsibility” is a weird one. I’ve described in a journal entry as, “being faithful with the opportunities that I’ve been given in the most Christ-like way”. During Lent, I want to be more intentional in what I consume, what I give towards, what I complain about, and what I celebrate. Vague enough?
To be truthful, I am not real sure exactly how this will look like. But it’s what I want to do and throughout Lent, I want to explore, struggle, pray, repent, respond, celebrate, give and hopefully by Easter, be closer to my Savior.
Feel free to comment on what you’re doing. In the meantime, may we reflect on the cross.
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