The next 40 days

Lent, the 40 days before Easter. These 40 days forty echo the wilderness where Jesus fasted and prayed before stepping fully into His Ministry. He was alone with God and you could say it was a time of preparation. 

During Lent, some people fast, pray (or at least try to pray more), and give up something. Some people give up sugar in their tea, others give up soda and cake, social media, etc.

The next 40 days should not only be about subtraction or giving up something in your life. They should also be about adding something into your life.

If you give up TV, what are you replacing that time with? If you give up sugar, will you build discipline into your life? If you give up scrolling at night, will you replace it with more sleep and real conversation? If you give up complaining, are you going to start practicing gratitude?  If you give up gossip, will you add kind words? If you give up reacting quickly, will you add patience? If you give up comparison, will you try to be more content? 

I am saying this because I believe you don’t just remove something and leave the space empty. You need to replace it. And what you replace it with is what begins to shape you.

The hunger of fasting does something. That small discomfort of saying no to yourself reveals things you didn’t even know were running you. When you deny yourself something small, it exposes the bigger things like what you rely on, what fills your time, what comforts you when you are stressed or bored, etc. It is in that space that something spiritual begins to shift and is where growth starts.  

Maybe the next 40 days are about replacing distraction with attention, replacing rushing with patience, replacing bitterness with grace, replacing excuses with responsibility. These are all light things that just require us to be a little more intentional.

Then there is a part we do not always talk about and that is what happens after the 40 days.

If we simply return to everything we stopped, then it was only a temporary break. But if we have been replacing, choosing differently, building habits even in small ways, then something takes root. Will we nature and grow those things we have established?

Just like Jesus’s wilderness, the next 40 days are “preparation”, not just for Easter, but for the person you are becoming. What you practice during Lent will not disappear overnight. It will settle into who you become, how you choose, how you show up long after Easter.

So as these 40 days begin, for those who choose to embark on this spiritual journey, as you plan what you are giving up, you could also consider what you are adding or replacing it with. Think about who you will be when the 40 days are over.

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Post Script:

Interested in other blogs?

• We often say time heals all wounds, but does it? Sometimes wounds fade because we face them, not because time passes. Click here to read. 

• We know the chicken crossed the road. But there are more questions than answers. Read here.

• If you would like to read more reflections, click here.