Last year I read the book, Give Up Something Bad for Lent: A Lenten Study for Adults, by the late Methodist pastor, Rev. Dr. James W. Moore. It shifted my perspective on how I will celebrate Lent this year and maybe from now on. Rather than me summarizing it for you, let’s let Dr. Moore say it in his own words. 
“For years, like many other people, I gave up something for Lent as a spiritual discipline. On Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season, I would make a commitment to sacrificially give up something that was important to me as an exercise in self-denial. It was usually something I liked to eat such as desserts or hamburgers or pizza. One year I gave up ice cream. Another year it was soft drinks, and still another year it was coffee. One of the hardest was the Lenten season when I tried to give up chocolate. Was I ever glad to see Easter Sunday come that year!
But a few years ago, this all changed for me. I now go about this in a totally different way. That particular year, as Ash Wednesday approached and I began to think about what I would give up that year for Lent, all of a sudden out of the blue it hit me … a new idea! Why on earth had I not thought of this before?
I decided that if I am going to give up something for Lent, why not choose something bad? If I am going to sacrificially give up something for Lent as a spiritual discipline and as an exercise in self-denial, why not pick out something that I really need to get out of my life permanently? [italics mine] Instead of giving up desserts or hamburgers or chocolate, why not select something that spiritually I would be a whole lot better off without? Why not choose certain acts or certain attitudes or certain habits or certain sins that have the power to contaminate, infect, or poison my soul? Why not give up one of those for Lent? It’s a good idea for all of us, isn’t it?
Why not intentionally decide, with the help of God, to put our energy and efforts into ridding ourselves of something that is destructive in our lives, something like envy or jealousy or self-pity or apathy or procrastination or gossip or resentment or blame-shifting or pettiness or negative thinking? Why not give up something bad for Lent in the hope and with the prayer that if we can give up that bad thing for the forty days of Lent this year then maybe, just maybe, God can give us the strength to give it up forever?” *
Today, Ash Wednesday, when I return home from receiving my ashes, I will meditate and ask God what I should sacrifice from among the many possibilities that cloud my soul. I hope you’ll give some thought to doing likewise.
Bless and be blessed this holy season,
-- Karen Kaigler-Walker
Horizon Texas Conference Spiritual Growth & Soul Care Coordinator
*Give Up Something Bad for Lent: A Lenten Study for Adults by Rev. James W. Moore. Abingdon Press. 2012.
