Members of the SMU community gather for noon Mass in Perkins for Ash Wednesday 2010. (Michael Danser/ The Daily Campus)

As today marks the day for Ash Wednesday, many students will pick something in their lives to give up in recognition of Lent.

Starting now and lasting through Easter, many people—not just SMU students—pick something in their lives they feel that they consume too much.

However, some choices may not be the most appropriate, according to Rev. Dr. Stephen Rankin, chaplain and minister to the university, who will deliver Wednesday’s service in Perkin’s Chapel.

“There’s a lack of understanding about what the purpose is,” Rankin said. “There’s a lot of folk practices that don’t necessarily connect correctly.”

For Christians, the time of Lent is to “examine our hearts, our mortality,” Rankin said. In order to do this, people can give up something on which they may be dependent.

“If we’re sort of attached to anything other than God, it might stop spiritual growth in some way,” Rankin said.

He referenced one colleague who gave up Dr. Pepper because he genuinely feelt like he depended on it. Rankin also mentioned his sister, who used to give up mashed potatoes because she loved them so much.

What one gives up should be some aspect of weakness in his or her life, according to Rankin.

By ridding the dependency, Rankin said, people then grapple with aspects such as sin and mortality, which all tie into Easter.

Rankin explained that Lent developed out of the season for people to prepare to convert to Christianity.

Today, it is still a time for people to come to Christianity, where they fast, study and pray in the time leading up to Easter.

Lent is traditionally celebrated by Roman Catholics, Orthodox and some Protestants, starting on Ash Wednesday—when ashes are placed on adherents’ foreheads as a sign of repentance—and going through Easter Sunday.

The Ash Wednesday service in Perkins will be held Wednesday at noon. All are welcome to attend.