Often for Lent I give something up. It is a way of creating space in my life. It is a way of restraining impulses, learning temperance, and practicing freedom. I’ll often choose that thing that is becoming larger than it should be and lay it aside. Comforts that have become too comfortable, too familiar, and too important. Laying aside dessert or coffee or wine for 40 days has that perfect blend of difficulty and do ability.
Sometimes I add something that I wish did more of. Letter writing, for instance. One year I hand wrote a letter to a friend for each day of Lent. Not simply for the sake of self-improvement. It is practicing those deeper passions of the heart. Things that have become stifled, or that the stresses of life are choking out. These additions to my life during the Lenten season have proven so life giving.
Many people I know are fasting from social media. I love this idea. What a wise way to protect the heart from anxiety and the dreaded fear of missing out. To replace social media with prayer sounds brilliant.
But not me. This year, for Lent, I’m going to increase my social media presence. Why? Because it terrifies me. I’m going to do my best to blog something for each day, a simple glimpse of a holy moment. Something sacred in the midst of the ordinary.
It is my way of exercising that shadow side of myself. That part of me that loves to design and create is so often overruled by the insecure critic; the one who tries too hard to sound profound. I’ll do my best to offer a glimpse of where I see God shining through the cracks. And I invite you to join me. Unless of course you’re fasting from social media for Lent. If that’s the case, let me tell you, you’re going to miss out.