Why Give Up Something for Lent?

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, and many churches hold special services where people are urged to explore personal reflection and repentance, and then are marked with ash. The ash is a symbol of mortality, death, and repentance. Usually, the Ash Wednesday ashes are created by burning palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration.

Many people choose to give up something in honor of Jesus’s sacrifices. Not only did he sacrifice his own life for us, but he also fasted 40 days and nights in the wilderness, all while being tempted by the devil.

As a symbol of our own sacrifice and repentance, we might consider giving up something, whether that is something good for us, such as food, to test our self-discipline, or something bad for us, as an act of resetting the self and turning to new ways of living.

5 Things to Give up for Lent

1. “Bad” Food and Drink

One of the most popular things to give up for Lent are things we already know we shouldn’t be consuming regularly, such as chocolate, sugar, white flour, alcohol, or junk food. We’ve wanted to stop consuming these things, and Lent is a great time to deny ourselves of their pleasures as we enjoy a time of spiritual reflection.

2. Crutches We Believe Help Us Function

Many of us are quick to claim we couldn’t get through the day without a strong mug of java. But in truth, we don’t genuinely need coffee to function. We only need the Lord. Lent, then, becomes a time when we honestly assess our reliance — or over-reliance — on certain substances, such as coffee to kickstart our sleeping brains and bodies for the day, or sleeping pills to wind down at night and get enough shut-eye. Some people choose to use the money they spend on coffee and donate that to a ministry instead.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Milada Vigerova