Many people follow the tradition of fasting in Lent, “giving something up” as a symbol of repentance and as an exercise in spiritual discipline, designed ultimately to test and strengthen the will. Others choose instead to “take something on,” choosing a way to serve the community or a new spiritual practice, with the same ends in mind. This year, for example, our Sunday School students will be leading the whole church in a season of gathering donations of clothing and food, inspired by the “40 Bags in 40 Days” decluttering challenge. (More on that to come!)

For myself, this year, I’m thinking of Lent as a chance to “peel something away.” I don’t plan to fast from my cup of morning coffee or my (less frequent) evening bowls of salt-and-vinegar chips. I’ll probably try to abstain from alcohol, as I have the last few years during Lent. But mostly, this year, I’m planning to peel away a few of the deeply-engrained habits that just aren’t giving me life.

In other words: I’m breaking up with my phone.

Not the actual “telephone call” feature of the phone, to be clear, but all the rest: continually opening up one social-media app or another, expecting to see something interesting or outrageous; starting off the morning with a digital doom-scroll to see the latest news; distracting myself from settling down with a book by constantly checking email. To all the myriad distractions that promise relaxation but instead just leave me on edge, to all the temptations to fuel my own outrage, to the constant connection that never quite connects, I humbly bid adieu.

This isn’t a “fast,” per se; fasting means giving up something that’s good, to take it up again in the future. It certainly isn’t “taking something on.” It feels exciting. It feels like a relief. I’m sure that it will be incredibly hard. I know that I will fail, over and over again.

This is “repentance,” at its best: a turning away from a path of destruction toward another that leads to life. In Hebrew, repentance is teshuvah, “returning,” and that’s my goal this Lent: I want to return to the way I related to the world before I had a smartphone. I want to be present with people when I am present with people, not to be looking down at a screen. I want to read a book before I go to bed, not bathe my eyes in blue light. I want to peel something away this Lent, not as a temporary fast, but in the hope that my path is changed.

What about you? What’s the test of your willpower this Lent? What’s the gift that you might give the world? What is it that you need to give up, or take on, or peel away, to come one step closer to the promise of abundant life?