The Best Things to Give Up for Lent

So, what are you giving up for Lent?

Not sure yet? I have a few suggestions.

Growing up, my family didn’t celebrate Lent. It wasn’t part of our faith tradition. But the older I get, the more I think Lent is a good idea—and not just because it provides us with a religious-sounding excuse to kick bad habits.

Christianity is a call to death and resurrection—a call to let go of the horrors and enticements of this world so we can grab hold of our identity as citizens of God’s kingdom, where justice and righteousness reign. We like the resurrection part, and love the idea of a perfect future, where all our problems are washed away. But we aren’t too fond of the death part—the part where we let go of the stuff that would taint that future, the stuff that poisons the present.

And it ain’t coffee or chocolate.

I love what the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh… The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfishness, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”

(I have bolded some of those acts because they are the ones we forget about, and that it is socially acceptable for many Christians to fall into.)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live in the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Since we live in the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Let’s give up hatred for Lent, and take up love.

Let’s give up jealousy, and take up joy.

Let’s give up fits of rage, and take up self-control.

Let’s give up factions, and take up forbearance.

Let’s let go of the gunk, the acts of the flesh that weigh the world down with their death-dealing consequences, and embrace the good stuff—the acts of the Spirit that breathe life into our beautiful, broken world.