Lenten Discipline

An excellent proposal by JoHannah Reardon:

I am not part of a church that regularly practices Lent, but the last few years I thought it would be good for me to give up something for 40 days, helping me to see my addictions and dependencies. In our indulgent, instant-gratification society, I saw the value of voluntarily depriving myself of something in order to focus more on who God is and how much I need him.

When I first started practicing Lent, I followed everyone else’s suggestions and gave up a certain food or media. Those experiences were fairly useful in showing me deep-seated habits and thus made me more aware of my need for my Savior as a result.

But last year I took time to pray about what I should give up for Lent. I asked God to show me a dependency that truly was hindering my relationship with him. I thought about foods, but I’m a fairly disciplined eater, so that didn’t seem to be a problem area for me. I’m also not a big media junky, so I didn’t feel compelled to go that route again. As I continued to ponder it before God, I had the strong impression that I was to give up worry for 40 days.

When I told my husband my decision, he looked at me skeptically. “Aren’t you supposed to give up something you enjoy for Lent?” He had a good point, but since I wasn’t tied to any church tradition anyway, I felt I could practice Lent any way I wanted. And once the idea of giving up worry for 40 days began to take hold, I felt stronger and stronger that was the course for me.

The funny thing was that if you’d asked me if I was a worrier, I would have said no. I have a pretty laissez faire attitude toward difficulties. I’ve usually faced the big things in life with trust rather than panic. So I could understand my husband’s attitude about me giving up worry.What’s the big deal about that? But I felt the nudge as strongly as I’ve felt anything, so I went with it.

Although I felt this conviction pretty strongly, nothing prepared me for the next 40 days, which turned out to be some of the most amazing, faith-filled days of my life. And to my surprise, I found out that worry has been one of my most deep-seated, tenacious sins.