As this blog goes live we are about halfway through lent but as I am writing it, we are just days into 2026. Unfortunately, life on the internet does sometimes mean doing things way in advance to make sure we stay on top of things and that saddens me because I really want to go back to the days where I could just be in the moment. I didn’t have to worry about getting a good photo or making sure I had a good story to tell, I could just be.
Then I think about Jesus and the kind of pressure He must have felt throughout His entire life to make sure the story that He was in the middle of had the perfect beginning, middle and end. He came to earth knowing that He was going to die a gruesome and painful and heartwrenching death to save humanity but He also knew that He was going to face opposition from His birth until His death and that must have been a heavy burden to carry, too.
And then I think about how nowadays lent has just become another thing, another trend almost that most Christians and few non-Christians now do. We briefly remember the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus spent being tempted by the devil relentlessly and then we move on. We think up something that we can give up – a token thing like social media or chocolate – and then we continue with our lives. But do you know what? Lent is supposed to be hard. It is supposed to help us reflect on the hell Satan was unleashing on Jesus for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus went into the desert to pray yet he was faced with Satan. And it almost seems that we are making a mockery of that, these days. This is probably unintentional for most of us but using lent as an excuse to go on a diet is not the point.
The point of lent is to give up something that takes up so much of your time and replace the thing with time with Jesus. So for some of us giving up our phone or our time on social media is the big sacrifice but replacing it with watching TV is not the point. The point is to trade in your 8 hour screen time and replace it with, ideally, 8 hours with Jesus.
I am in no way saying that this is easy. I am in no way saying that I pro at doing lent. I am not even telling you what to give up for your lent (partly because lent has already started but mainly because that decision has to be between you and God). Instead, I am asking this: are you doing lent for the right reasons? Are you doing it because it is trendy and all your Christian friends are doing it or are you doing it because you know the thing you have given up is hindering your relationship with God and you want to do something about that?
And then there’s this: a challenge that God has put in my spirit. If your life is the only Bible someone ever reads, are they going to see Jesus? As a Christian, your whole life should be a living sacrifice to Him as a result of the transformation of your life from the inside out. So, when people look at you do they see a reflection of Jesus Christ or do they see a reflection of the world?
In the run up to Easter as you spend time walking closer to Jesus, ask yourself if there is something that is making your life look like the reflection of the world rather than the reflection of Jesus and if there is then I urge to ask Jesus to shine His light into that area of your life and help you with it.