Do Nothing for Lent and Be Grateful
“Cultural customs dictate ’giving something up’ for Lent. Without any meaningful or theological reflection, it becomes ‘giving up for the sake of giving up,’ as though the mere act is enough. […]
Give up Facebook, and all that may happen is that other chores fill in that time the way the ocean fills our sandcastle moats; the castle eventually falls, and there’s no trace of our intention left. Give up chocolate, and all that may happen is that we fill our mouths with Skittles or our minds with obsessing about chocolate. […]
If our intention is to remember our efforts and our strivings cannot save us, it would be better for us to do nothing, and do it often, these six weeks. […] In a culture that measures our worth by the length of our daily accomplishments or the volume of our inbox or how scheduled our days, how countercultural would it be? […]” — Amy Ruth Schacht
