Giving Up Diet Culture For Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday. This marks the beginning of the sacrificial season of Lent, which Pope Francis says is a time of renewal and grace. The ashes are a reminder “For you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

As one of my favorite authors Lysa Terkeurst teaches, God loves the ingredient dust to make things new: the creation of man, the healing of the blind with mud, just dust and saliva. And while dust can remind us that all temporal things are passing, dust does not mean the end. In fact, dust must be present for new to begin.

It reminds me of the lyrics from Beautiful Things, “You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us,” my anthem for this Ash Wednesday.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spkhp41ig4&w=560&h=315]

I step into this Lenten season with a cross in the center of my forehead and dedicate this time to bringing the cross into the center of my being, with expectant faith for the renewal that will follow.

That means removing the old things in my life that separate me from the love of God and focusing on the things that draw me deeper into His love.

So for Lent I am giving up diet culture and the negativity, judgment and attachment to outcome that flow from it. I plan to share throughout the next 40 days as I reflect on what life is like without the false idol of diet culture and with my eyes, instead, fixed on God.