{"id":81,"date":"2012-03-29T11:13:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T11:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2012\/03\/what-did-you-give-up-for-lent\/"},"modified":"2012-03-29T11:13:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T11:13:00","slug":"what-did-you-give-up-for-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2012\/03\/what-did-you-give-up-for-lent\/","title":{"rendered":"What Did YOU Give Up for Lent?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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\u201cWhat did YOU give up for Lent?\u201d school friends would\u00a0ask\u00a0in the month before Easter. \u00a0As their resident Jesus freak, I surely would have given up something big\u2014like all food and water.<\/div>\n
\u201cNothing.\u201d\u00a0 I would say,\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMy church doesn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/div>\n
In fact, growing up in my PC-USA church, I somehow missed out on Lent.\u00a0 Instead, we had \u201cOne Great Hour of Sharing\u201d where I took home a plastic bread shaped bank in which I was supposed to put small change every night.\u00a0 Of course, I never did because I had no money, so Easter morning my parents emptied their change purses into the banks, and there, in a plastic breadbox, lay the whole of my Lenten spiritual practice.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

As an adult, despite attending an Episcopal church, for the first six years\u00a0I still didn\u2019t fast for Lent. \u00a0I wanted to assert my freedom in Christ. . . and I was just lazy and intimidated by the prospect of depriving myself for 46 days (the dirty little secret being that it\u2019s not 40 days, it\u2019s 40 days plus Holy Week!).<\/div>\n
My friends gave up all sorts of things.\u00a0 Swearing, complaining, criticizing, and worrying, along with the more typical chocolate, fast food, chips, and dessert.\u00a0 Come to think of it, I think I tried giving up complaining, but failed so spectacularly the first day that I gave up by the end of the first week.<\/div>\n
It was only after bearing my first child, when my already spotty spiritual practices became virtually nonexistent, that I decided to try fasting during Lent. \u00a0And I went for the doozy.<\/div>\n
Dessert.<\/div>\n
If I hadn\u2019t been praying before, there was nothing like giving up dessert to start me praying then. \u00a0Each time I wanted something sweet, I prayed, \u201cJesus, let me desire you more than I desire dessert.\u201d<\/div>\n
I found myself praying that prayer 10-25 times a day. \u00a0That\u2019s a lot more relating to Jesus than before.<\/div>\n
One night we went to dinner at a friend\u2019s house.\u00a0 The husband baked a flourless chocolate almond torte in our honor.<\/div>\n
\u201cThat looks so amazing. . . and I can\u2019t have any,\u201d I blurted.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d said our host, \u201cWell how about some peppermint ice cream?\u201d<\/div>\n
Talk about being led into temptation. . .<\/div>\n
\u201cIce cream\u2019s a dessert too.\u201d<\/div>\n
He looked puzzled, then laughed, \u201cI assumed you gave up chocolate, but all DESSERT???\u201d<\/div>\n
My husband said he had just witnessed my most supreme exhibition of self-control he\u2019d ever seen.\u00a0 And to break my fast that Easter, I baked my own flourless chocolate almond torte. \u00a0Sweet.<\/div>\n
Since my first Lenten dessert fast, I\u2019ve tried many other fasts including:<\/div>\n
    \n
  • Reading novels (excruciatingly difficult\u2014found myself avidly reading magazines and newspapers instead\u2013sort of beside the point)<\/li>\n
  • Listening to NPR in the car (even more excruciatingly difficult\u2014I hoped to either pray or engage with the kids, instead I just felt enraged all the time that I couldn\u2019t listen to my daily fix and had to listen to the kids\u2019 shenanigans)<\/li>\n
  • TV (the easiest by far\u2014so easy I barely noticed I gave anything up)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Over the years, I\u2019ve tried adding disciplines instead of fasting, but too often found that the energy it took to do something additional was just too daunting.<\/div>\n
    A few years ago, I never got around to deciding on a fast, so I skipped it, again proclaiming my freedom in Christ.\u00a0 But when Holy Week came, I felt like I\u2019d missed out \u2014celebrating the awesome good news of Jesus risen from the dead and new life for all just isn\u2019t as awesome without the spiritual preparation and (minor) suffering beforehand.<\/div>\n
    This year I\u2019m pseudo vegetarian for Lent, only cooking vegetarian, but eating flexibly when others feed me.\u00a0 I also decided I can eat seafood when eating out.\u00a0 My 15 year-old daughter has joined me in the fast, and the rest of my family is forced to partake every night since I\u2019m the cook.<\/div>\n
    Fasting from meat falls somewhere between fasting from TV and dessert, but closer to TV. \u00a0I certainly haven\u2019t found myself praying, \u201cJesus let me desire you more than meat\u201d even once.<\/div>\n
    My daughter says she thinks it\u2019s too easy.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s because she isn\u2019t cooking.\u00a0 Frankly, the greatest suffering comes from the complaining two kids forced into vegetarianism every dinner\u2014especially last night when I served Vegetable \u201cmeat\u201d (aka as mushroom) loaf.<\/div>\n
    But it\u2019s still been good.\u00a0 Fasting from meat makes me pause and think about Jesus, sacrifice, whole-world ecology and health each time I eat.\u00a0 I hope it helps the family do the same.<\/div>\n
    Already I\u2019m wondering what I\u2019ll fast from next year.\u00a0 Dessert again?\u00a0 Wine?\u00a0 Whining? The daunting Daniel fast? \u00a0Or maybe I\u2019ll have the courage to try the most feared of all again\u2014NPR.<\/div>\n
    Do you fast during Lent?\u00a0 Why or why not?<\/em><\/div>\n
    <\/em>What are you fasting from?\u00a0 How has that worked for you?<\/em><\/div>\n
    This first appeared on What She Said<\/b><\/em><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cWhat did YOU give up for Lent?\u201d school friends would\u00a0ask\u00a0in the month before Easter. \u00a0As their resident Jesus freak, I surely would have given up something big\u2014like all food and water. \u201cNothing.\u201d\u00a0 I would say,\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMy church doesn\u2019t do that.\u201d In fact, growing up in my PC-USA church, I somehow missed out on Lent.\u00a0 Instead, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Did YOU Give Up for Lent?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cWhat did YOU give up for Lent?\u201d school friends would ask in the month before Easter.  As their resident Jesus freak, I surely would have\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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