For years I've always thought something was wrong whenever people promised to sacrifice something for Lent. For 40 days, every year, people always had or did less of something. I never realised what was the flaw in all this until today. I guess, that's also why, whenever people asked me what I would sacrifice for Lent, my answers always changed because they never seemed to be enough. Cutting down my rice never seemed to be enough, cutting down meat, or internet hours or procrastinating never seemed enough of an answer to their question. In turn, their answers also never meant much either. I never understood why they seemed so convinced that their sacrifice would bring about change within them. For a lot of people, they've forgotten the real essence of sacrifice and for some, they know where their sacrifice leads them.
Let me share with you this tiny little flaw that hopefully changes how you see and make your sacrifices. Not just for Lent, not just for the holy week, or for Christmas or for a vacation, but hopefully for your life. Ok, here's the thing. I know that sacrificing essentially means giving up something, but meaningful sacrifice means giving up something in order to gain more. Instead of cutting off things from our life like our phones or carbs, or doing less of being lazy or lying... I think people should just do MORE.
The moment we think that we want to do less of something for a certain amount of time, most of the time we look forward to the deadline. In our heads, some of us are already saying "I wish Lent is over so I can start eating rice again" or "I wish the 40 days are up cause I want to look at my Twitter feed already". It doesn't make sense to sacrifice something for a while only to start doing things again after the deadline's passed. And what's changed in your life? What's gotten better after sacrificing something for 40 days? Nothing. It doesn't make us better and it definitely doesn't help us grow. We're simply putting a pause to something that's such a regular thing in our life, that's why a lot of Catholics... actually... a lot of PEOPLE, find the process of sacrificing so difficult to do, it's because they don't know how to do it right. I believe that the process of sacrificing wouldn't be much of a restrictive path to take if we feel that we are growing and getting better. When we feel like we're growing as a person, or becoming a better friend, daughter, girlfriend or student because of what we've sacrificed, because of what more we were able to do, then I think people would sacrifice more and not complain so much. Most sacrifices I've seen are such stagnant promises that keep us from pushing ourselves to do more. Eventually, if we do things right, the things we wanted to sacrifice so abruptly, become things we do less because we're doing more important things. Things that make us better people, things that keep us preoccupied and things that keep us happier than the person that we were. Sacrifice should bring us closer to a sense of self-fulfilment rather than an abrupt moment of keeping us from things we think are fulfilling our selves.
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