Fasting is a key feature, and one of the least popular aspects, of Lent. We usually consider it to be related to food, but its ability to shape us is much deeper. To fast is to willingly skip something that is good. I can fast from meat, and I can fast from music. I can fast from three big meals or I can fast from napping. Choosing to give up something that is essentially good, for some greater purpose, is a spiritual growth hack.

Fasting puts us outside our comfort zone. Meat is part of a healthy diet and a Sunday nap with the windows open is restful. Giving them up, even just for a day, for a bigger reason reminds us that comfort is not always our friend. Comfort has a way of lulling us into laziness, and from laziness into sin. By fasting, we remain proactive in developing our interior life. A strong interior life is difficult to assail.

We should include fasting as part of our regular life, perhaps even daily. It not only shouldn’t always be about food, it is probably healthy to expand our understanding of fasting. Whatever it is that we choose to fast from, it should catch our attention. Life is always, and will always be, busy. We need to purposely set reminders for ourselves so that we don’t lose focus.

I can fast from sleep by waking up when I committed to waking up. I can fast from laziness by doing my morning workout even when I don’t want to. I can fast by sticking to my cleaning routine, or completing the tasks that I’ve been avoiding. All of these acts can be transformed from checklist items to things that strengthen my spiritual life.

The path to holiness, to sainthood, is found in the small things. Hidden away within these little acts of sacrifice, as part of the fabric of our lives, is one of the most powerful tools for spiritual growth. It is our opportunity to do the things we ought, but to transform them into acts of prayer offered for those around us and the intentions on our heart.