Give up dessert. Give up chocolate. Give up alcohol. Give up food. Give up swearing. Give up your money. Give up this. Give up that. Lent seems to be filled with reasons and opportunities to give up. Being good at Lent seems to be equated to giving up. So I am going to urge you to be good during Lent and give up. Give up your ego. Let it go. Your ego does not serve you well. In fact, it is the main source of your pain and the pain you inflict on others. So give it up.

What is the ego? The ego is that voice in your head that demands to be superior, to differentiate itself from every other human being. It is that desire to be more, have more and do more than anyone else. Your ego needs labels to give you an identity: male/female, a name, a nationality, a race, a religion, a profession. It needs a role: father/mother, husband/wife. Memories are events, thoughts, and feelings that happened to "me."

When we say "Mine!" we are giving our identity to an object: a car, a home, a toy. We identify ourselves with many things, brands, and/or famous people. We do this in hopes that others will see us as better than other "ordinary" human beings. The ego's sense of worth is bound up in the worth we think we have in the eyes of others. We think that by associating ourselves with some product or someone famous our identity will be enhanced. Really?!

The ego identifies with the body too. Many people have a diminished self-image because they think of themselves as ugly or imperfect. The anorexic sees him or her only in terms of "fat" as they starve themselves to death. Even those who are deemed "beautiful" will struggle with this identification as aging and gravity have their way. Plastic surgeons love the ego.

The ego wants... demands bright lines: me versus you, us versus them, believer versus heretic. All these are needed to assert the ego's supremacy over all it touches. And when the ego feels inferior or diminished, it lashes out. Criticism, sarcasm, name calling, complaining and resentment flow freely. The ego knows no bounds. Violence and war are well used weapons of the ego.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and "If anyone would come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." This Lent, let us seek poverty in spirit and release from our egos. Let us deny the ego the place it demands, to be the front and center of our identity so that the crosses we find will unburden our souls.

These ideas and others will be discussed as part of our Lenten Study of the book, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Wednesday nights at 7PM beginning February 24th.