Lenten Reflection 39, Replacing the Bad with the Good

Now that Lent is nearly at an end, I’m figuring something out that should have been obvious. Giving up something bad for Lent is no good. You have to give up something bad and replace it with something good.

If you give up sweets and fill the void by drinking more alcohol, then you really haven’t accomplished anything. In fact, you’ve probably made matters worse: when Lent ends, you’ll probably go back to sweets and keep drinking. Jesus pointed out how this works 20 centuries ago:

“The unclean spirit, which has possessed a man and then goes out of him, walks about the desert looking for a resting-place, and finds none; and it says, I will go back to my own dwelling, from which I came out. And it comes back, to find that dwelling empty, and swept out, and neatly set in order. Thereupon, it goes away, and brings in seven other spirits more wicked than itself to bear it company, and together they enter in and settle down there; so that the last state of that man is worse than the first. So it shall fare with this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45)

I’m a slow learner.

Giving up something for Lent is the practice of sacrifice. Sacrifice comes hard to me, I’ll admit. But, if I make my sacrifice spark the development of a virtue, the sacrificial act will be much more “fun.” I focus too much on the driving out of demons and not enough on filling my house with angels. I’m guessing I’m not alone.

Reflection

Is my sacrificing making me better, or just miserable?