Select a few that appeal to you… How many are little stretch more than at times before?

Pre-read lectionary passages before the coming Sunday.

Try a new spiritual practice:

• an hour of silence each week
• journaling
• daily devotional
• etc.

Practice simplicity. Think through spending habits and eliminate just one expense (clothing, soda, coffee, dInner out, etc.) and donate savings to a charity.

Take on something:

• 40 days of letter writing
• 40 acts of kindness
• 40 calls to longtime friends
• etc.

Start each morning with a 10-minute guided prayer (at breakfast, when you first wake, on arriving at work)

Go to one extra Lenten service, study, event during each week (at your own church or elsewhere).

Place a meaningful scripture passage up where you will read it daily and commit it to memory.

Use “Busted Halo’s” InstaLent Photo challenge.

Read the entire gospel of Mark in some sitting. It is the shortest gospel and the most concise telling of Christ’s story. There is greater emphasis on the cross as well.

Attend a “Stations of the Cross” event.

Drive in silence on occasion and observe surroundings and thoughts that come.

Use a Lenten devotional guide:

• “Lent and Easter Wisdom” by Henri J.M. Nouwen
• D365 by PASSPORT
• Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Think about one bad habit or lack of a good one — that is keeping you from being all God is calling you to be. Consciously give up or add that habit.

Find an opportunity to volunteer in service. Work at a soup kitchen or food pantry, visit an elderly person or someone in the hospital or in need. (Welbourne UMC, Meals on Wheels)

Fast from cruel or judgmental comments about others, even on Twitter, Facebook, or in messages

Make a point to learn more about a particular social issue such as immigration, human trafficking, racism, the environment, public education, child poverty, etc. Offer a gift to them. Explore at:

• International Justice Mission (IJM)
• World Vision
• Sojourners
• Church World Service, Refugees and Immigrants
• No Kid Hungry
• Apologetics Resource Center (ARC)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Try coloring as a way of praying and meditating.

Collect coins for world hunger and place them in a bowl throughout the season, praying for those in need. Donate it, labeled “World Hunger Fund” at Easter.

Pray for people as you go. In every walk of life, we encounter others. Pray as you meet them. “Be kind, for everyone. You meet is fighting a great battle” – Philo of Alexandria

Get to know neighbors. Introduce yourself. Plan a gathering. Take a meal or goodie.

Read Matthew 25:31–46 and think on it. Choose an act of service you might do in response.

Spend time in confession. Speaking, writing, thinking. Consider sins, debts, transgressions that come to your mind. Pray for forgiveness and then, read these words. 1 John 1:8–9.

~ Adapted article of Renée LaReau