Last Friday, I sat down with my cuppa coffee for my morning prayer time, and I nearly spit out my first sip when I read that morning’s first reading:

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,

and drive all your laborers.

Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,

striking with wicked claw.  (Isaiah 58:3-4)

My first instinct was to laugh.  At that point, we were just a few days into the Lenten season, and I was already starting to rethink a few of my Lenten resolutions.  Some of it had to do with listening to Fr. John Riccardo’s Ash Wednesday homily.  He said if we want to make this the “Best Lent Ever,” we need to remember what the purpose of Lent is: to arrive at Easter Sunday looking more like Christ.  Period.  If we don’t arrive looking more like Him, all of our resolutions and sacrifices will have been a waste.  Instead of giving up chocolate, Fr. Riccardo challenges us to sit before God’s presence in humble prayer and ask Him to reveal to us the area of our lives where we are most resistant to change.

It made me think of many of our self-imposed fasts during Lent (no sweets, no coffee, no pop, no television, no Facebook).  Sometimes they bring out the worst in us and are actually more of a punishment for those around us than for ourselves!  If we are grouches to our loved ones without caffeine for a few days, that might be tolerable, but maybe God is looking for something else.  Maybe it’s time to rethink the self-imposed fasts that are “your own pursuits” and are not of Him.  If our Lenten resolution is resulting in “quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw,” it’s not what God is asking of us this Lent.  Maybe it’s time to lighten the load, change it, or abandon it altogether.

Is your Lenten resolution somehow softening your heart and making you look more like Him?  Great!  Persevere to Easter Sunday–and beyond!

If your Lenten resolution is taking you off course and causing more conflict in your life,

1. STOP
2. Pull a U-ey (Anyone else say that to make a U-turn?)
3. Ask Him to reveal what you’re supposed to be doing instead

Are you struggling to know whether or not your Lenten resolution is a good one?  Meditate upon this verse: “You will know them by their fruits.”  (Matthew 7:16) When are discerning whether or not we are doing God’s will, per usual, Peter Kreeft has some fantastic advice.  One of his five principles in discerning God’s will is to look for the fruits of the Spirit:

Look for the fruits of the spirit, especially the first three: love, joy, and peace. If we are angry and anxious and worried, loveless and joyless and peaceless, we have no right to say we are sure of being securely in God’s will. Discernment itself should not be a stiff, brittle, anxious thing, but—since it too is part of God’s will for our lives—loving and joyful and peace-filled, more like a game than a war, more like writing love letters than taking final exams.

If your original Lenten resolution is not bearing fruit, don’t be afraid to completely abandon it!  You won’t be some sort of Lenten failure.  Well, you will be a Lenten failure if you abandon your resolution, throw your hands in the air, and leave it at that.  “Fine!  That didn’t work out.  I guess I’ll just try again next year.”  Instead, slow down long enough to spend some time in silence.  Kneel in front of a crucifix, gaze into our Lord’s eyes, and ask Him what part of your heart you need to soften to look more like Him by Easter Sunday.  Then, ask Him how He is going to soften your heart and what you can do to make that change.  And, hey, there’s no expectation that you’ll have that part of your heart completely softened or healed by Easter Sunday.  He just wants you to take that first step toward Him today–toward love, joy, and peace.

So, who’s with me on Day 1 of (re)New(ed) Lenten Resolutions?  Here’s to being unrecognizable on Easter Sunday!