Not Just About Chocolate

Most of you know that I was raised Catholic, and the time of year where it is most noticeable that you are Catholic to non-Catholics is during lent. This was especially true for me since most of the people in my family were Southern Baptists. So at best, we were always a little weird during this time of year. Growing up, there wasn’t really this deeper understanding of what fasting during lent meant. For the most part, it was the time of year when you didn’t eat chocolate, or drink cokes, or eat candy. But it wasn’t until I got much older, and really tried to understand the meaning behind fasting, did the significance to fasting during lent really make sense.
There is so much more to fasting than just giving something up. The prophet Isaiah exclaims “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?” And we have learned, the answer to all of these questions is no. God does not call us to fast just for the sake of fasting. God calls us to be renewed people. God calls us to live as He created us to live. We know we fall short of those intentions often, and one of the major benefits of fasting during lent, is it allows us time to focus on the areas of our lives where we have not lived as God has intended us to live. It allows us to focus on the areas of our lives where we have grown apart from who God has created us to be. It allows us to notice the things in our life that we are running from. And THOSE things are the things that we fast from. Those are the things that we choose to give up for lent. Not just to start them back up in 40 days once Easter comes, but instead to use lent as a catalyst to transform our lives to be more like the people God has created us to be. For some of us, that may mean giving up trips to the mall. For some of us, that may mean less time with our best friend the television. For some of us that may mean stopping our visits to websites on the computer that we just shouldn’t be visiting. However, for some of us it may not be giving anything up at all. It could be taking on something that we need to take on to start walking toward the fulfilled life God calls us to. We could be called to spend more time with our family instead of our work. We could be called to intentionally step into scripture more often. We could be called to get into better shape, instead of taking these bodies that God has blessed us with for granted. We could be called to literally call the people in our lives who we know we have hurt and ask for forgiveness. I’m not sure what it is that you may have to take on or what you may have to give up for this lent. You may not know what it is. That is part of why we fast together on Thursdays, when our stomach grumbles and the hunger pains become more frequent, let them become for us our call to prayer. A prayer that God would show us the areas where we need true fasting, and a prayer asking for strength to take the steps to live the life He calls us to live. For you, you just may need to give up chocolate. But one thing we should know about fasting, it’s not just about chocolate.
(Copy and paste this address for the teaching about fasting from last year’s gathering into your address bar…please listen: http://ecclesiaclearlake.org/2010/02/ )