I thought about my love of bananas but that didn’t have quite the impact that I was looking for. Desserts might have been a good one but I wanted something that had more of a daily, even hourly impact on my life. Even though I have fasted from this before, I thought I needed to do it again. So, for Lent, I am giving up Soft Drinks.

I am addicted to Cokes like many people are addicted to coffee. I plan my day around getting a Coke and usually have to talk myself out of getting one early in the morning and late in the afternoon. I am often rationalizing reasons to drink one. All of this to say, this will be a real sacrifice for me and something that I will have to rely on God’s help to get through. Yes, consumable items can have that much of a hold on you.

But Lent is not about me and my achievements, it is about preparing for the celebration of Easter. Through this fast and a deeper commitment to Christ, I hope to make this Lenten season a powerfully moving one full of experiences with God and a transformed heart.

Those of you who are joining me in participating in Lent, I will pray that God will reveal himself to you through this experience.

Come Lord Jesus!

Christ Webb, President of Renovare, writes that Lent is ”a time of repentance, an opportunity to experience the mercy of God, to be set free from past patterns of behavior, and to embrace a life of joyful holiness.” Wow. If I were more eloquent or a thief, this would be the Christian Life Hacker mission statement. In a nutshell, Lent is a time when God is calling you to renew your commitment to him by humbling yourself and sacrificing your wants for the “mercies of God” and “joyful holiness.”

Here are three steps to approach and practice Lent:

1. Sin Inventory. On Ash Wednesday, some churches have their members write down a particular sin or sins on a piece of paper and then throw it into a fire. You may want to just take a piece of paper and start listing sins. Pray over your list and ask for forgiveness and then throw it away to symbolize how these sins no longer have a hold on you. If you have a trusted friend, you may want to share a few of the sins on your list and ask them to pray for you that Lent will be a powerful time of renewal.

2. Pick an Elimination Food Item. I have talked in this blog about fasting or eliminating. I have mentioned fasting from technology or sports but the traditional way to fast is to eliminate food or a food item for a time. Last year, I fasted from Soft Drinks during Lent.

Though some people may feel more of a sacrifice if they fasted from Facebook or TV, I would encourage you to try a food item because of the connection between our body and our spiritual life. Our brokenness and sin can so infuse our heart and mind that it filters to our body where our parts are so willing to do wrong. Fasting from a food item starts to break the hold that our body has on our heart and shows us an existence that is not characterized by untamed fleshly desires.

3. Join with others. Even if your church does not practice Lent corporately, there is no reason for you to practice it in isolation. Take if from me, who tries to do everything on my own, a community or a few people who are doing this together will make the experience much more meaningful. Ask your spouse to join you or a best friend. If you are already in a small group or Bible Study, then tell the group what you are doing and have them pray for you and consider joining you. This blog could even be a place to join with others. Tell us what you are doing in the comments box and the Christian Life Hacker community can pray for you as you become active in this great preparation for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On Wednesday, I will let you know what I will be fasting from and give you an opportunity to join me in practicing Lent.

This post previously appeared March 4, 2011

 I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful^[b] one see decay.
¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

So, keeping verse 8 in mind, I set out to keep the “Lord always before me” so that I will not be shaken. I didn’t close up my Bible and skip out of the room on a spiritual high but I did understand that if I was going to shake the blues I was under I needed to focus less on myself and my own predicament and much more on my Lord, who “will not abandon me.”

Thank you Lord for the Psalms, a ready remedy for the blues.

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outside the box in ministry. Here is a timeline exercise that you can do from home.

I have come across many regimented and structured approaches to the Bible but many of these programs lose the concept of formation. Lectio Divina is designed for formation. Here is an introduction to this ancient practice.

Worship experiences outside of church events are usually fragmented and force the worshiper to piece together items. I find a song here, read a scripture there, and then access a sermon. A New Liturgy is a collection of 25 minute worship experiences that can be downloaded or sent via CD.

A Howard Payne student won an award for this short film, Stained Glass. Does it seem like the generational gaps are getting wider? Or is it just me?

Reading for the fun of it. Who knew? Alan Jacobs encourages Christians to read but it doesn’t always have to be serious.

Now reading: Read the Bible For Life by George Guthrie

Now listening: Hard Bargain – Emmylou Harris, Beyond the Sun – Chris Isaak, 11/22/63 – Stephen King

Now watching: Downton Abbey, An Idiot Abroad

This project takes a little more effort and time than usual blog posts so I will be a bit sporadic and link driven over the next week or two. I think you will enjoy the finished product though. I have been developing some of these ideas for over 10 years now and in true Christian Life Hacker style will attempt to make it accessible and doable.

More to come…

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much time thinking and stressing over these encounters. For some people, the entire weight of human existence and all that is right in the world is hanging on the proper response to these situations.

I say just relax, get off your high horse, and consider a few things that might help you handle these situations with a clearer mind.

• First, 85% of the time, when you give a panhandler money they intend to use it for less than noble pursuits. This is no great revelation so what good is it going to do to crank up the judgement level. Sure, it is advisable to not give panhandlers money but no matter what you do, do it with a spirit of love and kindness and not contempt and self-righteousness.

• Second, if you decide to give a panhandler money and they choose to use it for booze or drugs then that is between them and God. It is out of your hands and you don’t have to feel guilty as long as you were faithful to what you felt the Holy Spirit was guiding you to do. Many people fear being taken advantage of but is that really the end of the world? Maybe we need to learn to be more generous and God has placed this person in our path to see if we are willing to be gracious and compassionate. Sometimes the encounter with the homeless person may be more about you than it is about the homeless person.

• Third, start to save up the coupons you see for food. We all have free drink coupons or 99-cent hamburger coupons lying around that we mostly ignore. Why don’t you get some of your really good ones, stick them in a sandwich bag, and put it in your glove box. When you see a homeless person, you can pass it along to them. Or you could buy a gift card to McDonald’s and place $5-$10 on it and hand it to the next homeless person you see. Better yet, put together a sack with snack items that can handle a few days in your car and make that your handout. You could write a note on the outside or place a scripture verse inside the bag.

• Fourth, talk to homeless people. If you have lived in fear of homeless people, maybe it is time to move past your fears. Like we have said before, the panhandlers are going to be the more aggressive, possibly addicted, street people. They might not be open to much conversation. But if you move past this version of the homeless and encounter folks at shelters or homeless ministries, you will find very fine people who are very interesting to talk to and are very thankful to have your attention. Some of the kindness, most genuine people I have known have been homeless people.

For four years, my wife and I worked closely with the homeless and poor. These observations come from our experiences during this time.

There is immense value in doing something even though I don’t want to. Isn’t our “want to” response the enemy of many things that are important? If we only listened to what we wanted to do we would do absolutely nothing. Any truly great athlete or performer will often be able to answer their “I don’t want to” response with a pointed “shut up.”

Orel Hershiser, a Christian and great pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, said in his book that on the days that he needed to workout and his “I don’t want to” response was especially loud he would find someone nearby and tell them that he had little motivation that day and he needed them to workout with him to keep him honest and working hard.

Hershiser knew that accountability and community were essential for him to maintain discipline and commitment. It is too bad that American churches push the “lone ranger Christian” mentality so hard and make following Christ out to be such an individualistic endeavor. Left to ourselves, we listen to our negative responses way too often. We justify our lack of commitment to Bible reading or prayer. We give in to the myth that what matters is the 10 minutes we spend in quiet time even though the rest of our lives could be filled with devotion and spiritual activities as well.

We all could use a little more practice and help telling our “I don’t want to” response to shove it. Get started today. There is much that we are missing behind these negative responses.

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I used to be very organized at work. I wasn’t one of those workers who took forever to return an email. If there was an RSVP for a meeting or luncheon, no one had to send me a reminder memo. I was on top of it. My office included open desk space and well labeled filing cabinets. My to-do list was refined, massaged, and edited daily and sometimes hourly. Did all of this make me a better employee? Was I adding true value to my employer? Was I doing truly meaningful work?

No, not really.

You can be the most organized person in the world and still not get meaningful things done. In some respects, I was busy organizing to avoid what was really important. Staying organized was shadow work but not the real thing. It was, as Tim Ferriss has said, “work for work sake.”

To avoid “work for work sake” you have to be able to determine what is truly important and let the rest take care of itself. I wonder if we do the same thing with our spiritual life? Are we busy with spiritual things yet ignoring what God is asking us to do? Does our spiritual life look better by human standards than it does to God’s standards?

Reading the latest buzz worthy Christian book, debating the latest theological trend, and listening to the next preacher superstar may make you look devout and knowledgeable, and you certainly are, in a sense, but it doesn’t mean that you are growing to become more like Christ. It doesn’t mean that you are becoming a more loving and generous person who is slow to anger and quick to forgive.

We may have to put away our books, our seminars, and our conferences and just spend some thoughtful hours with God in order to let him dictate what is most important in our life. Then, we need to go about living out that important thing and letting everything else be.

Thankfully, Christians are not left with just the limited nature of their will power. Jesus’ emphasis in his teachings, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, was on the heart. He says to first, “clean the inside of the cup, so the outside will become clean also.” The problem with change that relies so heavily on will power is that it is focused on the surface of the person and not the inner character.

If I am going to become a kinder person, I have to first become the type of person who would naturally be kind. If I am going to be of service to others, I have to first become the type of person who would serve naturally. Gritting teeth and tapping into will power will fail 80% of the time and always has its limits.

Real power comes from taking Jesus into our hearts and letting him start to change us from the inside out. The change has to come in the heart before it will manifest itself into action. This is a much better strategy for change than will power. Easier too.

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30

What can you do today to change from the inside out?

• Acknowledge that your will power is weak and not very helpful.
• Read 1 Corinthians 13 with the knowledge that it is not asking you to do anything but become something
• Ask Christ to change your heart
• Focus on Christ’s work inside you and not on the outside results, those will come.
• Tell others that you are no longer trusting your own strength but in the power of Christ inside you