These are merely my opinion, so they might not apply to you, dear reader.
1) Thinking I'm proving something to God - I don't think that He is looking for me to prove to Him that I can go five and a half weeks without a Diet Coke.
2) Messing up and then quitting - God is a god of do-overs. If I slip up, there's no reason I shouldn't repent and start again. If I can't do that over Lent, how could I expect to do that in "real life"?
3) Switching midstream - I'll admit it. There have been years where I picked something to give up and after a week or two, I switched to something 'easier'. Lame. Lent should be a time for the broken me to become stronger.
4) Not filling the new void with Christ - Do I give up a favorite food, but not feed others? Give up TV time to pursue just another mindless activity?
5) Counterfeit sacrifice - Been there. This is like being so busy that you've had to skip a couple meals and then turning around and calling it fasting. Or spending your precious Saturday mornings helping at a soup kitchen and resenting it all the while. Or adopting pseudo-asceticism based on self-loathing. It would be better for my soul to honestly give nothing up at all.
Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm hopeful it will come to me at Ash Wednesday service tomorrow evening.
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