Less Chocolate, More Resistance
Lent as practice for living under pressure without becoming what we oppose
My dear ones,
First, a word of apology and thanks. This landed in your inbox later than usual this morning. We had a family medical emergency last night, and I’m grateful to report that everyone is okay. Thank you for your patience and your kind thoughts, which mean more than you know.
Now, to the work at hand.
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Lent usually gets marketed to us as a personal spiritual improvement plan. Forty days to become a slightly tidier version of ourselves. Give something up, feel a little more virtuous, and return to normal on Easter morning.
But what if “normal” is part of the problem?
That’s the question I’ve been sitting with as we enter this Lenten season, and it’s the animating question behind this week’s deep-dive: “Less Chocolate, More Resistance: Lent as Practice for Living Under Pressure Without Becoming What We Oppose.”
In a moment when democracy is fraying, truth is treated as negotiable, and cruelty is getting repackaged as strength, the church doesn’t need a spa retreat. It needs a season of wilderness survival practice. One that tells the hard truth about where we are and calls us back to who we’re trying to become.
In this piece, I make the case that Lent’s classic disciplines, repentance, fasting, and prayer, aren’t private spiritual hygiene routines. They’re counter-formation practices. Training in how to live with less panic, less propaganda, and more moral presence. They’re how people of faith learn new reflexes when the old world is pressing hard to colonize our imaginations.
This is a longer meditation, so settle in. Grab something warm. And know that you’re not reading alone. [Download the PDF below.]
Be gentle and brave,
Derek
