What Lent means to me

This occasional series of reflections written by residents and Alumni continues with this piece by Irma Kurniawan.

To me, Lent is a time to make the right choices and live them with courage and faith.
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Whenever I am faced with a dilemma, God does not spoon-feed me with the right decision to make, but He will give me all the collateral tools to be able to listen to my conscience and make a choice that will bring me closer to Him. And Lent is precisely the time to use these tools. It is the time to stop whenever I see myself doing things that do not glorify God, to seek help and advice from fellow Christians or Church authorities, and most important of all, to sit before God and pray, asking for hope.
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Lent, for me, is the time to make the right choices that will allow me in what I do, to glorify God, and live those choices. To me, it’s like a time to make some serious resolutions. I'm not referring to single resolutions such as waking up at 6.30am everyday, or doing more exercises. While these are good and real examples of how one might manifest their fundamental decisions into practical routines (and one should always aim to do this), I am referring to more holistic resolutions in shaping my daily life to place myself, my thoughts, my actions, and my desires before God, in order to worship and please Him. Of course in reality, this becomes manifested in making decisions in small things such as finishing that one last task that I have to do today rather than procrastinate.
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And most of all, Lent is the time to ask for His compassion and love, and strength to live out those resolutions.