During this Lenten Season, we went to one of our Covenant Churches for Ash Wednesday Service and the challenge to the congregation was to fast from selfishness, and to do one kind deed daily (at a cost to our time, energy, or finances).  Andrew Wollitzer, our Berkeley Covenant pastor wrote us these reasons for fasting during Lent.  They “… go back to the early church’s practice of giving up for a season eating things that were expensive or luxurious so that A) they could prepare themselves for the great feast of Easter, and B) So that they should “shift” their lives for a season from the desire for ease and luxury (a desire I am sure we are all familiar with) to a focus on living in the life of Christ.  The point was not suffering, but rather to change the patterns and focus of their lives towards simplicity and to examine themselves to see the ways in which their lives were not subjected to Christ’s Kingdom, and to repent and seek His grace.

One lesson was a fast from sinful behavior and the other a fast from something precious in our lives.  Both are attempts at showing us our need to repent and to seek God’s grace; to realize once again why the cross was so necessary and for us to realize how much we need a Savior.

This practice has been an amazing journey for me.  God has indeed used this time to change my focus…

• I have realized how much I have a “take and eat” habit and so to change my eating behaviors has taken much mental energy as I initially began this discipline.
• I was delighted by the “feasting at Easter” picture and must confess that it was that “apple on the stick” which got me through some parties.
• To  even consider “doing without”  is a big hurdle for me and it can easily become “the thing” I focus on, rather than on my Savior.
• Going  the next step in fasting to praying has been another hurdle.  Not that I don’t pray, but to use this time of emptying my life of certain practices and eating habits and then filling it with those things that draw me to God is challenging for me.
• It has been a time that has encouraged me to stop and consider and to observe how I live from a new perspective, to see my tendency to “replace” what I have taken out for something else or to struggle with the temptation to “give in” .
• In my little “slip ups” I see how easy it is to make small of it or excuse it,
• As we near the cross and come to Palm Sunday in our Lenten observance, I am drawn to Jesus and the life He chose to live for us on this earth.  I find myself very, very grateful that our Lord did not “give in”.   His sacrifice is taking on monumental proportion as I compare it to the paltry fasting observances I am doing in comparison
• Finally, I realize how often I live in the celebration of Easter.  This Lenten fast has helped me focus again on the “cost”…what it took for our Lord to bring us into His Kingdom.

More of Him…less of me….the final week…