At its core, Lent is a challenge. The period is designed to mimic the 40 days our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, spent time alone in the wilderness where, toward the end of His stint, he was tempted by satan.
For devout Christians, the season of Lent is an opportunity to express their faith and reflect on what it meant for God to have sacrificed His one and only Son, for our sins. For nearly everyone else, it’s a time to reflect on sacrifice in general. In both instances, most people give up some luxury or self-imposed necessity for the period from Ash Wednesday leading up to Holy Week.
For many, the abstinence becomes a burden at the halfway mark. For others, they never make it past day three. And still, for a few, that luxury or self-imposed necessity turns out to not have been that important in the grand scheme of life after the period is over.
It’s the battle of wills that makes the wondrous pursuit of having mind defeat matter that intrigues me most about Lent. There have been some years where I won the battle. There have been others where I have failed miserably. There have been some years where I opted not to participate in abstaining from anything. I always seem to wonder if who would have won the battle in those years – my head or my heart.
I’ve been thinking about what I should do for Lent 2025—whether I should give something up, reflect on something or add something to my plate to help build discipline in this chaotic life of mine. After all, there are those who consider Lent to be New Year’s 2.0—a refinement or second chance to commit to resolutions made in January.
I’ve decided to make three sacrifices.
The first is following in the footsteps of one of my sorority sisters by giving up fast food. I already failed this one by accepting a meal from Wendy’s on my dad’s dime after driving him around for a few hours today. But the goal is to get back on the wagon and keep going until fast food is relegated to what it was when I was a child—a treat, not a staple.
The second is reducing my time on social media. Tricky as my work requires me to use it but hear me out.
I’m going to reduce my time on my phone—set a cutoff point in the evenings and only use it for work during the day. Yes, I need it for calls. Yes, I use it to check in on clients. And yes, I use it every morning for devotions, my French lessons, and my Elevate app. That’s my morning trifecta. But after that, I don’t need it in my hand.
My phone is my go-to device for time spent on social media. I spend countless hours—what I think are minutes—mindlessly scrolling. I tell myself I’ll stop after watching one reel or one clip, but before I know it, three hours have passed, and I’ve watched 20 more. It’s a vicious cycle. This will probably be the hardest part—loving myself enough to let go of both. Abstinence from both are habits I need to build. Every day will be a battle between my convictions and my comfort zone. Only time will tell which wins.
P.S.: I’m also challenging myself to write every day, no matter what. It could be 100 words or 1,000, but the goal is to build the habit of writing daily. My only caveat is that the writing cannot be for a client. It has to be for me. Send up prayers for me on this one.
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Song: Love Is A Battlefield
Artist: Pat Benatar
Album: Live From Earth
Release Date: 1983
