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| Fasting – Don’t Do It! (unless…) May 4-10 has been proclaimed as a week of Prayer and Fasting in order to go deeper with God. I have been around The Salvation Army as long as I can remember and I have never heard of a call to Fast and Pray. Perhaps this is why my interest was peaked when I learned that we were going to be asked to fast and pray for the upcoming Holiness Congress. I am totally at peace with The Army’s standings on sacraments and I guess that in my mind fasting had been grouped with those things that we just don’t do. That said, I thought I had better take a closer look at the whole thing. Scripture mentions fasting almost from the beginning. Some examples are extreme. Moses, Elijah and Jesus all fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Scripture also speaks of fasting being accompanied by prayer, confession of sin, mourning and humiliation. I began to wonder how being depriving of food could accomplish something spiritual. If I skip a meal and go shipping with friends or go to a movie instead of having dinner this could not be considered spiritual fasting. If I am trying to loose weight and decide to go without eating for a few days I don’t think I could call this fasting. For myself to understand fasting I had to take a hard look at the role of food in my life. I must admit that I have often turned to food for comfort. When I have been depressed or felt bad for one reason or another certain foods have made me feel better. When I was a child if came home from school crying, or fell and scrapped my knee my mother would offer me cookies (never just one – we have two hands so we need two cookies). I think if I’m going to be honest here I would have to say that at times when I should have turned to God I have instead turned to food. As I begin a journey towards fasting maybe a good starting point for me would be to reach for God instead of a chocolate bar.As my mind tossed around the whole idea of fasting I began to think that maybe there are other things besides food that I could on occasion ‘deprive’ myself of in order to commit more time to prayer and meditation. Perhaps I need to ‘fast’ from watching TV or going to the movies. All of that said, I could give up food, movies, TV, playing games and anything else I could think of and it would be of no value what so ever if it did not cause me to enter into a more intimate relationship with God. So…if you aren’t looking for more quality time with God I say – don’t do it. Don’t do it because everybody else is. Don’t do it to look holy. Don’t do it because it is the right thing to do. Don’t do it - unless you are looking for something special to happen in your relationship with God. However having said that I say Just do it. Don’t wait for God to tell you to fast. Don’t wait until everybody is doing it. If you want to give God a chance to do something mighty and new in your life Just do it!
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Last Wednesday I had lasik surgery. In time this should greatly improve my eyesight and eliminate the need for glasses. As one might imagine I have been thinking about sight. I must admit there have been many times in my life when I have not seen things clearly, and it had nothing to do with my need for glasses. We see because of light. Without light there is no sight. It is interesting that light cannot be hidden by darkness. It is very seldom we find ourselves in total darkness. Especially if you live in a big city there’s always some kind of light. When my children were very young we lived in Brooklyn, NY. We moved from there to a very small town in central Pennsylvania and the first night we were there both of my kids were amazed that it actually got dark at night. Tonight there is going to be a lunar eclipse in which the earth comes between the moon and the sun, and the moon will appear to glow red. On its own the moon doesn’t shine it only reflects the light of the sun. Jesus said that he is the light of the world and that in him there is no darkness. John 8:12 says, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’." Just as the moon has no light of its own but reflects the sun so I have no light of my own, but can reflect the light of God. Even today when things in my life or around me seem to be unclear I am so keenly aware of Paul saying that now we see things dimly but someday we will see things clearly. When I seek understanding, when I try so hard to know the mind of God and don’t find the answers I am looking for, I have the hope - not the assurance - there will come a time, probably not on this earth, when it will all become as clear as daylight. Until then…I remain in search of clarity.
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Today is Ash Wednesday. I haven’t been to church, I don’t have ashes on my forehead and I ate breakfast and lunch. I don’t know who it was that first thought of burning the palm branches after Palm Sunday and saving the ashes for almost a year and then taking them and marking people’s faces with them. I’m sure they meant well and all, but I must admit I don’t quite get it. Don’t get me wrong I love the Lent season. I love that time of introspection, reflection and repentance, but ashes? In scripture ashes seemed to be associated with sorrow, you know sack cloth and ashes…and with purification. I suppose there is a certain amount of sorrow associated with the Lenten season. Both God the Father and God the Son experienced sorrow as God gave the Son to purify sinful human kind. I hope to someday meet the mastermind behind Ash Wednesday and learn the thought process that brought about the grey smudged cross on foreheads. Until then…I will anticipate for the next forty days the wonderful celebration of Jesus’ great sacrifice and his victory over death.
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Why in the world does God give us kids? There are many days when I ask myself that. Both of mine are adults in age, but far from being grownups. Having been a single mother since my children were in their early teens I have dealt with many different situations. Just when I think I have seen it all they throw something else at me. Today is one of those days when I understand why some animals eat their young. I am at my wits ends. I don’t know what to do. Part of me wants to protect them and the other part of me wants to put them on the street with a sign “Free for the taking!” I must admit as my frustration peaks at their lack of ambition God spoke to my heart and said, “Now you know how I feel my child.”
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Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. It amazes me that in this day of advanced technology, with all of our radars, satellites, and weather computers that we still rely on a Pennsylvania rodent to predict the length of winter. We – humankind has come so far and yet we have such a ways to go. Is it not also true in our own lives? We have been given so many tool and yet we don’t use them when we find ourselves in need. So often when we are troubled we look to friends, chemicals, even TV psychologists for the answers. Even more often we look to ourselves to muster up the strength, courage and determination to live the way we think we ought. The whole while we ignore the fact that God, the one who created it all has for us all we need and more only waiting for us to ask. In my own life so many times I have settled for my best when what God had in mind was so much better. God has given us his living word, access to him through prayer anytime we choose, and he has even given us his very presence in and around us. Why? Why does he give us these things? It is because he loves us and he not only wants us to have life he wants us to live that life abundantly.
Bless you!
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