I love seeing what people give up for Lent.
Chocolate. Fried foods. Drinking. I even have a friend that gave up cussing. And if you knew this friend, that's probably a really good idea.
I've seen giving up buying shoes, drinking caffeine, Facebook is a big one now, and so many other worldly things that people have become accustomed to.
But I have also seen some very humbling gestures that people have left behind in this time tradition after the last big blowout of Mardi Gras. Teenagers that have given up their beds to sleep on the floor. Another that is writing a hand-written letter to a new person each day that has touched their life. And while I chuckle at my chocolate obsessed friend that is in agony from giving up their vice, it's the tales of those that strive to truly inconvenience themselves to have a higher understanding or to leave behind indifference that really touches my soul.
So I'm going to make a suggestion... for all of us.
Give up indifference for Lent.
Take the time to do something kind for someone else. Really walk your dog (and not just a trip down the block and back, I mean a good, hour long walk). Chat up a homeless neighbor on the street and see if they need services or shelter--and please, send them our way. Visit someone in your life in a nursing home or a psychiatric facility. Make contact with a lost friend or relative in prison--they need more support than you realize.
Yes, our lives are busy. Yes, we do important things. But it takes no time to pay for an extra coffee in the line at Starbucks or help an elderly friend with their groceries leaving Schnucks.
The Salvation Army's tagline is "Doing the Most Good". But we believe wholeheartedly that doing the most good can't possibly exist solely within our organization. It lies within you, within our community, within our hearts.
Be well this season.
Dana Biermann, Digital Marketing and Communications Manager
