Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the day our calendar calls Ash Wednesday.  It begins the season called Lent and will end on Easter Sunday.

Confession: I never heard of either of these growing up. That’s right. I grew up in a church tradition where Ashes and Lent were not mentioned. In fact, I can remember sitting in a high school class one day and one of my teachers had this black spot between his eyes on his forehead. I almost said something to him about having dirt on his forehead. Even though I grew up in a largely Catholic/Orthodox-dominated area, I had no clue.

Even as a pastor I really had no clue because it was not part of our church life. As time went on I heard about it, but there was still no understanding or (dare I say it?) caring about it. It still wasn’t even on the back burner. That should tell you how important it was to me or how it crossed my mind (it didn’t).

Then one day after we moved here, I was talking to some folks about sacrifice. It was around the time of Lent so the tie was made. So was the challenge. We challenged each other…sort of almost as a game…to give up something for 40 days. In fact, I even issued a challenge to the church. Some gave up warm beer (not too sure about cold). Some gave up smoking. I gave up caffeine…mainly Diet Dr Pepper.

This year I have issued myself a challenge…partly for health/weight reasons and partly because I want to see if I can do it. I have committed to giving up ALL pop for the 40 days. I even went a step further and have given up chips and any other salty snacks of no nutritional value. (Pistachios are allowed). We shall see.

What about you? Have you decided to give up something? As a side: I thought about giving up chocolate but I tell people I can’t sacrifice that much. 🙂  If you care to read, here is an article on the Top 20 things people say we ought to give up for Lent.

I will gladly give up social media. Oh yeah…I’m not on it. 🙂