A couple of weeks into a new year, there’s a day called “Quitter’s Friday”. It’s the alleged day in which many people who had noble goals — eat less, exercise more, donate more money to charities, be less angry at outcomes of sporting events — decide to, well, “quit,” and go back to how things were prior to that respective January 1.
No one’s come up with a speculative day for it yet but I can imagine something similar happens during Lent — a “quitter’s day.”
You had the most righteous (there’s a word I don’t use often) of motives. You were going to pray more, read the Bible more, eat less junk food, drink less [insert liquid of choice], and donate more of your time, talent, and treasure.
Perhaps you started and stopped. Perhaps you never started. Perhaps you didn’t realize Lent was already here.
No matter what the case, you’re looking at yourself right now and thinking that you’re not doing much or not doing anything.
You may be either relieved or burdened by the fact your thought now is “Oh well, I’ll have to try again during Lent next year”.
NO!
This is not the time to use my inside typing.
NO! DO NOT THINK YOU CAN DO NOTHING UNTIL NEXT YEAR!
You can still save your Lent.
It’s certainly long enough to do so.
Notes, notes, and more notes
Maybe your goals were fine but you just forgot to do things differently in your life come Ash Wednesday.
If you want to pray more, set a timer or an alarm so you don’t first think to pray at 10:59 p.m. when you’re half asleep but need to watch one more video on YouTube.
Leave notes around your home and work reminding you to do the things you want to do.
If you want to go to daily Mass more, come up with a way to remind yourself to go and stop consuming food before it.
If you want to give more “alms,” pick a day and time each week that you’re going to do so and make it a routine.
If you want to fast more, leave notes on the fridge, in the pantry, or wherever you keep the snacks.
The word “NO” is just as good in these situations as any.
Do you need help accomplishing your Lenten goals? Of course, you do. That’s why you’re in this spot to begin with. Give yourself whatever help you need.
Readjust your practices
If your Lent isn’t going as ideally as you’d wanted it perhaps, (saying this with all of the love in my heart) you’re doing it wrong.
You might have thought it was a great idea to read the whole Bible during Lent.
Many podcast fans know how challenging it is to read it all in a year, much less in six weeks.
Maybe you were going to go to morning Mass every day, including getting up at 5 a.m. every day and being ready to go and pray.
That can be a lot to take on depending on your sleep habits (I tried this one myself 12 years ago and it got to be too much about one-third of the way through Lent).
Maybe you thought about cutting out all unnecessary foods during Lent. Anything that seemed “extra” or “unhealthy” was not going to touch your lips.
Maybe you overdid it and you’re just living on water, a piece of bread, and a raw potato. This may work for some very saintly people but not for you — and that’s OK.
While we do need to push ourselves a little during Lent and get out of said “comfort zone,” that is different for everyone.
It’s OK to set a “long-term” goal for Lent or beyond but take baby steps to get there.
You know what works for you but sometimes it’s more harm than good to do too much and end up just hurting yourself.
Yes, you can unite every hurt to His suffering but your whole life shouldn’t be taking everything away from yourself (shout-out to my beloved who constantly has to tell me this during Lent when I second guess doing anything that might remotely bring a smile to my face).
Start with the heart
The not eating this or that, doing more of this, or giving more of that isn’t exactly what gets you to Heaven and closer to the Almighty.
It’s what’s inside you that matters.
If you don’t have a huge scorecard of Lenten achievements, but your heart has been moved forward and in the right direction, you’ve had a good and successful Lent.
Whatever you continue to do or start to do this Lent ask yourself how each thing will help you know God, love God, and serve God.
If your Lent practices are merely to lose weight (I’m guilty of this one too), punish yourself, or look good to others, then you probably are doing it wrong.
Now is the time to do it right.
Like that sports cliché “blah, blah, blah, it doesn’t matter how you start, it matters how to finish,” it does really matter how you finish — whether it’s at the end of Lent or the end of your life.
Also, don’t worry about anyone else’s Lent. You’re doing this for you and the good that it will do others when you are strong in your faith.
Make your Lenten plan a collaboration between you and God.
If it is, how can it fail?
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.