“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” - Luke 6:38 

The concept of Lent to me has never been something I've ever observed or even taken into consideration - probably because it wasn't part of my upbringing. Then I stumbled, quite literally, across the movement that is '40acts' started by the Christian charity 'Stewardship' - with an aim to challenge people in the everyday to give more freely. Some of the acts are seem really small an example being on Tuesday the act of giving joy to someone in the form of chocolate - Andre Spence documented his act of giving on his Instagram if you're interested in looking. Chocolate can literally cost pennies and yet has the ability to bring a child like joy to people - which has reminded me to appreciate the small things life has to offer a lot more. Usually, you hear a lot of people giving up chocolate for lent and failing then feeling a way about it - the act of giving then gives you the ability to share more.

Yesterday, the 8th day of Lent, the challenge was to 'Bring life' in the form of blood donation. This has always been something I've been intrigued by over the last year - I couldn't give prior because of my tattoo then this triggered me to look into it again. Giving blood within the black and other ethnic minority groups isn't practised as much with less than 5% of donors in the last year being from these backgrounds - yet we form almost 15% of the population. This number is crucial in light of the number of patients that require constant blood transfusions - particularly those with Sickle cell from the black community and Thalassaemia in the Asian and Mediterranean communities. Some blood groups are a lot rarer to find and have been seen to be most prevalent within the black community - so surely we should collectively aim to give and give freely if we're able to.





The act of giving challenges you to put yourself at a lower place to humble yourself - knowing that all you have within you has the ability to be shared and used by people who desperately need it. If I was being completely honest, the thought of blood makes me sick as in the anxiety that built up in me to donate was overwhelming. In reality, the blood that you donate replenishes itself in less than a month - which you won't even notice go by if you really deep it. The average person can give up to 6x a year - why don't you start with giving once?


Check if you're eligible to give at www.blood.co.uk  - if there's anything to take away from this post is to give and to give freely. You never know what your giving will do.