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"In a culture where the landscape
is dotted with shrines to the Golden Arches and an
assortment of Pizza Temples, fasting seems out of
place, out of step with the times." (Richard
Foster)
Lent 2006
Today
is Ash Wednesday - the official start of the
Christian Lent
season.
Followers
of Christ all over the world will commence various
fasts for the next 6 weeks leading to Easter. For
many of us, fasting of any kind simply escapes our
radar unless we face a crisis or a time for vital
decision-making; perhaps 40 days for national
revival, 14 days to find a spouse, three days for
a career change, and single meal for a refinance
decision.
But
the tradition of fasting 40 days before Easter
serves at least two helpful purposes. First, it
comes around each year and thereby guards us from
fasting simply to manipulate God for crisis
intervention. Second, it keeps fasting before us
as a worthwhile discipline to deepen our hunger
and thirst for
God.
We
won't find Ash Wednesday or Lent in the New
Testament. Jesus did not institute them and Paul
didn't write about them. Nevertheless, this season
can be deeply meaningful and spiritually
enriching.
Repentance
and fasting deserve resurgence in our day, when
sin is downplayed and self-denial is ignored. Some
might say, "I'd rather die!" But that's precisely
the point. This fast reenacts a "death" to
ourselves so that we might experience a new level
of intimacy and "aliveness with Christ." Each
time we "miss" something we have laid aside for
Christ, our mind is briefly drawn to Him
afresh.
Sterling
Hundley notes: "Fasting is a symbolic act, not a
logical act.... The symbolism of fasting can be
destroyed by too-rigid analysis or elevated into
idolatry. The meaning of fasting is simply our
hunger for God and for God's righteousness,
expressed with
abandon."
We
may devise many excuses for not fasting, but
ultimately our excuses may simply highlight our
light appetite for God. One writer puts it this
way: "The path to the buffet table and the path to
sanctification lie in opposite directions." That
may be more true than we want to
admit.
Fasting
is an ancient spiritual exercise designed to
enhance our attentiveness to God. This Lenten
season calls us again to set our minds afresh on
Him, to listen harder than usual - perhaps
harder than ever.
As
we restrain ourselves from a particular indulgence
or comfort, we may find ourselves much more
focused on Christ. Consequently, His resurrection
on Easter Sunday becomes ours in a deeper way than
we might have imagined or experienced
before.
In HOPE
-
David
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