It’s not too late to give up something for Lent.  Trust me, I’m in seminary – I know about these things!

Here’s an idea of what to give up – Give up the thing that drives you nuts.  Give up the thing that gives you a visceral reaction.  Give up responding to the thing or person that irks you.

Politics got you in a funk – you know it does if you have the feeling in the pit of your stomach anytime you hear the words politics, partisanship, Democrat, Republican, Congress, President, Trump, Pelosi, Obama, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, etc.

Maybe it’s not that. Here’s some other suggestions – give up power grabs and office politics.

Or how about trying to force other people to conform to your will and thoughts and beliefs.

Maybe you’ve been on the receiving end of these things.  Maybe try giving up being walked over.  Maybe try giving up bottling everything up inside yourself.  Maybe try giving up trying to go it alone when what you really need is help.

Think the world won’t be able to manage for a little over a month without you stressing about any of these things?  What do you think will happen when you die?  All this crap will continue on without you.  History doesn’t end when you die.

Now is a great time to give up some things that are not healthy for yourself.  Lent isn’t like new diet.  Lent is an opportunity to examine the relationships we have with God, with others, with ourselves, and with our stuff.  To look deep within that relationship and see what we don’t like about it, what God doesn’t like about it, and to see where God is calling us and how God is calling us to respond to God in our life.  Maybe the thing we give up stays out of our lives.  Maybe it comes back, but in a different way – a different relationship.  Maybe it comes back the same, but how we deal with it has changed.

Just don’t give up.  God doesn’t give up on you.