Lent 2026: Rinse and Repeat
[This is an edited repost from last year, February 20, 2025, which included what I wrote in 2020. I have been leading a Bible study (“God of the Ordinary, a study in the book of RUTH,” by Alistair Begg). When the study concludes in March, I will write about it so that those interested may benefit from this excellent study.]
Lent is a period of preparation before Easter, 40 days, Sundays excluded. This year Lent falls February 18––April 2, 2026.
I’m still stumbling to learn about this liturgical observance by Orthodox Christian religions, Catholics, and some Protestants.
Last year, I chose 3 books to guide me in my own soul preparation. These books have no relation to each other yet astonish me as I read, as if stringing pearls on a necklace.
Reflect with intention: Rearview mirror while also looking ahead
Lent 2020: Give up to Gain
Two years ago, I gave up social media for Lent. 40 days of doing without. Something.
Although the religious affiliation I have identified with since my teen years neither practices nor preaches Lent, the years I spent in seminary introduced me to the historic and practical relevance of Lent.
Havana, Cuba 2019
Beginning the day after Mardi Gras, the 40 days of Lent marks a season of self-denial that culminates on Easter Sunday, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Death. Burial. Resurrection. Dying to one thing in order to live, or make space for something else. Something better.
“You’re a hard habit to break,” the band Chicago reminds us.
Habits are, well, hard to break.
My daughter, while taking an addiction and recovery class at Texas Tech University, told me about her class assignment to give up for 31 days something each of them craved.
I followed that lead and the 31 days timeframe. The point was to identify with those in recovery who every day must begin again and say No to whatever hinders their progress.
This exercise overlapped with the beginning of Lent, leading me to question the variety of motivations for doing without. Doing without something.
Digital Minimalism
I had come across a podcast titled, “How Social Media May Be Ruining Your Life.”
The author of “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World” shared how yours and my attention is monetized on Social Media. He said, “Facebook is valued at more than Exxon Mobil . . . and what Facebook does is extract attention away from you.”
“If it’s on your phone, it’s using you.”
Newport referred to Social Media as “cognitive junk food” that impairs the ability to focus. He also linked mental health issues of the first generation to have Smart Phones, comparing addiction to food leading to obesity and addiction to our mobile devices leading to our inability to concentrate.
“Hard things are boring,” he said. “Concentration is hard work . . . It’s good to be bored” (in order to use our imagination).
Going back to Steve Job’s initial introduction to the iPhone, he said that Jobs wanted “an elegant device,” and he did not want apps to detract from the phone, yet also a device that played music.
So, Cal Newport made the suggestion to take 30 days away from Social Media and apps that you use. After that, start with a clean slate and intentionally add only those things in line with your values.
Good advice: “Make each app earn its way back.”
While I did not act on this advice, Newport made me think. Made me evaluate the ways I waste time and the frustration that mounts with my inability to focus and get good at something.
Things like finishing a manuscript I’ve been working on for 10 years. Or keeping up with this blog.
Two years ago, I sent a note to someone different each day of the 40 days of Lent. I gave up something in order to make time to do this.
Something tangible ended up in the hands of someone instead of relying on technology alone to maintain these important connections.
Here’s the rub. If you are reading this post, you are using technology.
My hope is that the technology that led you here helps you give up something in order to gain something better.
