Ship of Fools: Lent 2016

Thread: Lent 2016 Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

I wondered what people are doing this year?
Giving up? Doing stuff?

I am doing 40 Acts again this year (see sig for link - if everything went according to plan!), and I'll be blogging about it too. 40 Acts of generosity - I found it both enjoyable & challenging last year, so I hope for more of the same in 2016.

Is anyone else getting involved?

Posted by ElaineC (# 12244) on :

Looks interesting - so I've just signed up.

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

I'll be annoying conservatives by saying "Hallelujah, it's lent!" much as in the same way I say "Macbeth" to actors in a theatre. [Devil]

Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

quote:
Originally posted by ElaineC:
Looks interesting - so I've just signed up.

Jolly good! I hope you find it both enjoyable & thought provoking...

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

I feel that Lent should incorporate almsgiving and prayer as much as fasting - so along with giving up sugar, I will be donating to digestive disorder charities (Crohn's & Colitis UK, and Gastroparesis UK) and following the reading plan from Rowan William's Meeting God In Paul.

Posted by Telepath (# 3534) on :

I'm going to give up unnecessary purchases, and oversleeping.

These are the two habits that cause me the most serious problems in my life, so I'm hoping to extend the ban beyond Lent, but... you know, one thing at a time.

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

First I praise our Lord that this Shrove Tuesday being unable to drive anymore at night I am not required to eat any of the pancakes both burned on the outside and raw in the middle prepared by youth groups across the nation at this time each year.

I am taking a carbon fast this Lent the link is found here.
Lent sans carbon.

Posted by moonfruit (# 15818) on :

I am rather specifically giving up buying coffee from Pret a Manger (or anywhere else) on the way to work. It's a little luxury that I enjoy greatly, and doing without it will be hard.

I've also got 'The Heart's Time', a poem a day book edited by Janet Morley - I used her similar book during Advent and loved it, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Posted by RainbowGirl (# 18543) on :

As a diehard facebook addict, last night I deleted my Facebook account, and my twitter account. I'm already cringing at the internet silence.

The above wasn't really lenten and more of an I need to ditch this before it completely engulfs my life thing.

For Lent I'm attending additional church services, and giving the majority of my free time to essential work around both my church and the local parish. I have a series of daily devotional readings as well.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

One year I gave up church for Lent.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by moonfruit:
I am rather specifically giving up buying coffee from Pret a Manger (or anywhere else) on the way to work ...

Over here, the Tim Hortons coffee shop chain has a ploy to stop people doing just that, which starts every year just before Lent and goes on until they run out of cups with rollable rims.

Prizes range from free coffee and doughnuts to cash, televisions and cars.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

One serious thing, and one silly.

I have and always have had major anxiety--it's a constant undercurrent in my life. This Lent I'm attempting to consciously lean on Jesus every time something starts frazzling me. It feels sort of backwards, since everybody around me is giving up a pleasure, and I'm taking one on--but I've always gone bass ackwards through the world, so I suppose it's fitting.

Now the silly one. I have a client who claims to want my services as an editor/copyeditor/proofreader, yet her behavior and language makes me think she wants nothing so much as a therapist. I just got off the phone with her confidently rejecting every freaking thing I've said to her so far about her writing on the grounds that a) she has great respect for my abilities, but she isn't going to listen to me on a subject she knows more about, b) she doesn't need a PhD to tell her what to do (! ? [Killing me]

), c) I'm too expensive anyway, and d) she doesn't need a lesson in how to write. And yet every time I suggest she might be better served to find an editor more to her taste, she refuses to hear of it and sends me more text (after telling me assorted times just how wrong I am).

At this point I am inclined to simply laugh and go with it, insults and all, just to see how far the Lord has taken me down the road of getting rid of my native arrogance. I'm rather heartened at the moment to see that my reaction to the last is simply to laugh and laugh. Ten years ago I might have been upset!

Hey, it'll brighten up the odd hour. And give me minor gas money to boot.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
One year I gave up church for Lent.

I told someone I was giving up faith, hope and charity for Lent this year.

I wasn't entirely joking. I have little faith left, hope is a tricky area at present, and I'm a bit fed up with people treating me like a walking cashpoint. However, I've made a resolution to eat more healthily, cut out refined sugar where practical, get fitter, and try to be less judgmental. Whether you believe in Lent or not it's no bad thing to have something to aspire to.

Having said that, I might give up Lent for Lent next year.

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

I'm giving up Words with Friends as I'm becoming addicted to it. I've told my regular opponents and I'm finishing the games I'm playing.

Posted by shamwari (# 15556) on :

I am giving up work for Lent.

Posted by agingjb (# 16555) on :

"They tell me I must walk to keep my health;
Resolve to move each foot in order; stamp
On tiredness, and get by studied tramp
A cure acquired by good advice and stealth.

Are fields of bluebells worth the clay and mud?
Or roughened red and madly blistered feet
Scraping from the iron of the street?
And now above the mire a rising flood

Pressing against an unrelenting tide,
The wanderer must slowly take the strain,
Admitting that there is no vicious pain
But inward aching, growing stride by stride

Traipsing through earth, with every moral spent;
If walking’s fun, then give it up for Lent"

[If anyone is wondering about this poem it was written by the poster (agingjb) and we have his permission to post it here - WW, AS Host]

[ 11. February 2016, 14:44: Message edited by: Welease Woderwick ]

Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :

Being more intentional about a regular pattern of prayer; checking social media only once a day; no chocolate but hot chocolate drinks don't count. I'm also following an email series but am not quite on its wavelength yet.

Posted by Celtic Knotweed (# 13008) on :

I am going to try to go swimming regularly again. I managed to stop by mistake a couple of years ago, and really want to get back into the habit. Since we moved house I no longer cycle past the pool each day, but we live much closer, and I can get out of w*rk clothing before going there (makes it feel more fun).

Admittedly next week is half-term, so the screaming hordes will be there, but I should cope... [Help]

Going to buy a 10-swim ticket as an added incentive!

Posted by Adam. (# 4991) on :

I have some ways of simplifying (and somewhat reducing) my food intake that are a helpful baseline, as much to remind me it's Lent as for any other reason. I also grow a beard for Lent, as I don't really like wearing one. Do these things lead to great spiritual growth? Probably not, but they form me to long a little more for Easter glory by embodying that desire in a more or less eager expectation of what can come on the feast day itself. And these sacrifices, however small they may be, and however less important than loving neighbor they may be, are still an act of love for the God who first loved us. Lent isn't a 'spiritual self-help boot-camp' anyway.

Last year, I resolved to give up parking in the best available parking space. I don't drive nearly as much this year (living and working on a university campus), but I'm trying the same thing again. This does help form me to think more instinctively of others as more important than myself, and does generally concretely help at least one other person at a time. Mostly, it increases my sense of compunction, as I find my autopilot parking-space-finding-spidey-sense instinctively guide me to exercise my egotism.

Finally, I'm trying to do something whimsical each week. Not work, not exercise, time-wasting in the good sense, not in the surfing the web / watching tv sense. This past week, I booked myself 30 minutes in a massage chair at the university health center. Next week, I might go to a museum. Playing this one by ear, which isn't my usual mo. We'll see how it goes.

Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :

I have given up chocolate (as usual), and am doing some daily Lent readings (this year I'm reading Maggi Dawn's book "Giving it up". It's OK but I don't think I'm in the zone with it yet). Faith feels a bit distant at the moment, so it feels like I'm going through the motions, but I do appreciate some discipline in my life and hope that it might rekindle, well, something.

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