Fat Tuesday Promises & Ash Wednesday Realities

Beyond wanting to eat all the pączki, I think the greatest temptation on Fat Tuesday is biting off more than you can chew in terms of Lenten sacrifices.

For some, perhaps even this author, Lent can be seen as a New Year’s resolution do-over. But this time…I’m doing it for God.

Our intentions are good—we want to improve ourselves and grow closer to God, and Lent feels like the perfect time to go ham on eliminating our vices and embracing the Catholic spiritual life that we’ve always wanted.

I’m giving up desserts and Coke and TV and movies and social media and music and yelling at my kids. And just giving something up is for amateurs, so I’m also going to add a few things. I’ll attend Adoration every week and start praying the Liturgy of the Hours and read the Bible when I wake up and pray with my spouse before I go to bed.

And you know what? I never do service. I’m going to do some service this Lent. Yeah, service. That’s the ticket.

So maybe you’re not thinking about all of those things, but you’re surely thinking about some of them.

And this is not an indictment of self-mortification. It’s just a dose of reality. Lent is a season for further conforming our hearts to Christ by recognizing and emulating his sacrifice. If that means no chocolate for you, then don’t eat chocolate.

But this is a reminder (mainly to myself) to keep it simple, stupid. I need to actively remember the reason why I am engaging in whatever Lenten practices I undertake and sally forth in a spirit of quiet surrender that keeps these sacrifices between me and God.

It means not balking loudly at the fact that I won’t get to eat cake at all the upcoming family birthday parties that seem to fall during Lent every year. It means carving time out of my personal schedule for spiritual practices, rather than excusing myself from putting the kids to bed because Evening Prayer isn’t going to just pray itself.

Lenten sacrifices must be taken on with the same humility of spirit in which Jesus took on his own suffering, and that can be pretty hard for us mere mortals to do on our own.

This means prayer is a non-negotiable part of any Lenten fast. Let’s let God walk alongside us in the small “sufferings” we experience as we give up earthly pleasures and vices for the next 40 days. When you give up social media but really want to post a biting political comment and restrain yourself? That is when He is carrying you.

And since He is carrying us, let’s not get down on ourselves when we inevitably fall this Lent. He will either pick us back up or drag us kicking and screaming.

My main goal this Lent is to clear more space for God in my life and be more present to the people He has put into my life—family, friends, coworkers, and even the unexpected strangers that cross my path.

It’s become apparent and appalling that there is so much clutter in my brain right now.

I notice it in the ways I waste spend my limited free time. In the moments when I distractedly ignore interact with my kids. In the fruitless time that I spend worrying thinking about the future. In the myriad ways I squander take my blessings for granted and forget that it has all been given to me by my Creator, whom I don’t acknowledge nearly enough.

I’ve gotten so comfortable in the comforts that God has blessed me with that I don’t even recognize them as comforts sometimes. Lent is a good time to make ourselves uncomfortable.

A path of greater simplicity for the next 40 days—whatever that looks like for you—will help to clear out the cobwebs of self-indulgence, cynicism, and apathy that seek to block out the joy and true fulfillment that Christ offers us in every moment of our lives. And that’s really why we’re doing any of this—to ready our hearts to accept the love and mercy that is sweeter than any chocolate we might be missing.

So, this Lent, let’s give it up for the God of the Universe. Give it up in praise. Give it up by giving something up. Give it up by giving up our pain and hunger and temptations as a sacrifice. Give it up by grounding ourselves in prayer and renewing our relationships.

Pick even just one of those things and give it up that way. Just don’t give up.