Hicks’ 10 Suggestions For Lent

John Mark Hicks provides these ten suggestions for Lent (check out his website, it is a wonderful resource for the spiritual life!):

1. Give up Starbucks Coffee or caffeine (including Cokes, Pepsis, etc.) and save the money you would have spent in order to give to some charity.
2. Make a commitment that when you feel the urge to surf the internet, you will replace that with fifteen to thirty minutes of prayer, meditation, reading Scripture, or reading godly material. Instead of surfing, perhaps meditate on Chris Altrock’s 40 days of Lent through praying the prayers of Jesus.
3. Commit to giving up some sleep by rising fifteen minutes (or more) earlier or going to bed fifteen minutes (or more) later to spend time in prayer, meditation, reading Scripture, or reading godly material. You could read the morning or evening Divine Hours or download them free on I-Tunes.
4. Give up television altogether or for a specified time each day (e.g., 8:00-9:00pm) and devote that time to a devotional plan of some sort (e.g., reading Scripture according to the plans Dean Barham has offered). Or, sit silently and listen to music for an hour that takes you into the presence of God for meditation and reflection.
5. Instead of eating out for lunch each day, bag your own lunch; as you prepare your lunch, recite a prayer from memory (e.g., the Lord’s Prayer) and devote the money saved to charity.
6. If your family was planning a major purchase or if your family regularly spends money on unnecessary daily desires (e.g., eating out, renting movies, etc.), delay doing so until after Lent and use the money you would have spent to save for a charitable donation.
7. Every day of Lent write a letter or note to a significant person in your life in order to thank them for their presence in your life, or every day during Lent write a note to a person who needs encouragement or blessing, or every day write a letter of amends to people with whom you have had difficulty. This gives up time you would have spent doing something else and replaces it with loving ministry.
8. For the forty days of Lent, give up time doing something you might normally do to devote to journaling: confess sin, reflect on where God was present in your day, and write a prayer to God.
9. During the forty days of Lent, journey through the story of Jesus with your children by spending fifteen minutes a day reading the Gospel of Luke together or watching a clip from a movie like “Jesus of Nazareth” in order to talk about what you read or saw.
10. Take thirty minutes each day to inventory your house: clean the closets, sort through your clothes, etc. Give to others (e.g., Goodwill) what you have not used in the last year.