A moveable fast

Lent begins today, with Ash Wednesday. In previous years, I've considered carefully what to give up or release for Lent. Usually it has involved giving up shopping, books, doughnuts, or other things I dearly, dearly love. Sometimes it has meant adding extra Calculated Acts of Kindness or shedding yucky old habits. This year I am stumped. And unmotivated. And sluggish.

But I like this phrase, "a moveable fast." It speaks to the crossroads where I find myself this year. It accommodates a shifting of priorities. It allows for the change-up of my ideas about what it means to be faithful, to be in relationship with God, to be a Christ-follower. It makes room for me to be a person of depth and thoughtfulness, even when I don't feel deep or thoughtful. It reflects the sense that there is something unrooted and undecided. It allows me to adjust the fast, the sacrifice, to where I am now.

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I've had the sense lately that simplicity is knocking on my door. I usually get an urge to clean-sort-discard in the springtime. But this feels different. It feels MORE. (Ha. More simplicity.) It's like I've got a different want/need button in my brain. A smaller one, that takes longer to activate. I dig it, though. It's a good thing. But I haven't figured out what I want to do with this new guest yet.

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Sacrificing complexity and excess? Sounds about right for this year's moveable fast.

Are you in a season of sacrifice? What are you called to give up or make right?