Turning Off My Cell Phone And Logging Out Of Facebook During Lent
Growing up, Lent was not a part of my faith experience. It was not a tradition really practiced in my church or my family. Actually, if I am honest, I probably even felt judgmental about it. My unspoken thoughts were; “It’s just something those weird catholic kids do!” They get ashes on their forehead and then quit eating meat on Fridays. Why? Honestly, most of my catholic friends didn’t understand it either. It was just a ritual.
At Central College I was introduced to the practice through Lenten breakfast times of prayer. I enjoyed this practice and now regularly practice fasting from something during this time of year.
There are some traditional spiritual disciplines protestant Christians have focused on during these 40 days leading up Easter and Jesus’ resurrection. These disciplines are prayer, fasting, and generosity. One of the best ways is to ask God what He wants for you during this time.
Last year I was doing some reading about how addicting social media is, and how it rewires our brains. I was convicted about my own compulsive use of social media at times. I committed to fasting from Facebook and to fast from my cell phone at night. The flipside of this fast was to use that time to pray and read. I wanted to break some bad habits and build some better ones. This was good. I read some books and prayed more. I was not perfect. It was difficult at times, but I did find less of an urge to do those things at the end of Lent. I think I may repeat this fast again this year.
So, as we enter into Lent 2023, are you feeling led to be intentional about changing your patterns of prayer, fasting, and generosity?
Steve Poole
Director of Youth & Young Adults
