What should I give up for Lent?

Lent is that season in the Church whereby we are called upon to take a long walk in the desert with Jesus and gear ourselves up for battle with the devil. In the desert there is nothing to entice us except a sea of sand, hot and humid weather and a waterless zone. Desert reminds us of our need to depend on God for everything. Little wonder then why desert is a place for penance, self-denial and sacrifice. Here Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in prayer to God in preparation for his mission in the world, in obedience to God. During Lent we fast, pray and give alms. We engage in acts of charity and we try to outdo one another in kindness. We are often more concerned with what to give up rather than on what we should do. So what should we do in order to enter fruitfully into the season of Lent?

Just a few suggestions: For Lent of this year let the stress be on sin reduction. This means reducing the frequency of the sins that we tend to commit regularly. It can also mean reducing those nagging bad habits that keep us in bondage. We could for instance learn to control our tongues more and stop gossiping or spreading rumors about people. The rule of thumb here could be, if you have nothing positive or good to say about someone, keep quiet. Remember this: there is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worse of us; it behooves any of us to say anything about the rest of us. Since we would not like people to say bad things about us, especially if those are false rumors, then, we owe the same consideration to others. If gossips come to you and notice that you are not responding they will move away. If you do this during this Lent, you would have had fruitful Lent this year.

On habit reduction: we could try giving up some of our bad habits. Say you are a smoker and you know as well as I do that smoking is dangerous for your health. You know that you only smoke because of that nicotine in your system, and you know also that the smoke from cigarette is gradually destroying your lungs. Then why not do something about kicking that bad habit so that you may be set free. Well then Lent is a good time to start. Begin by giving up few cigarettes a day. If you were used to smoking 10 sticks of cigarette a day, try 9 cigarettes. Hopefully by Easter Sunday, you would have given up five sticks of cigarette. Now what to do with your savings from the cigarettes you have given up? That for sure is easy. Give the equivalent of those cigarettes in cash to the poor.

There are other wonderful things you can do during this season of grace, the springtime of the Church. All you need do is apply the same principle as above and this year will be your best Lent ever. Good luck!