Today is Ash Wednesday. On this day we begin the season of Lent with a call to
fasting and repentance; words that aren’t common in a culture driven by
consumption. Fasting is much more than a discipline designed to deprive us of
life’s delightfully dangerous pleasures. Fasting is a spiritual practice that
has long been used by people of faith to create space for the Holy Spirit to
work in our lives.
In the first chapter of Mark, we read that the demands of
daily life and ministry weighed heavily upon Jesus. At one point, Mark says
that “the whole city was gathered around the door” of the home where Jesus was
staying. In the morning, while it was
still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he
prayed. (Mark 1:35) The spiritual practice of fasting is one of the ways
that we can enter that “deserted place” in order to hear, feel, and experience
the nudging of the Holy Spirit.
Lent’s call to fasting is perhaps more complicated in
today’s world than at any other point in history. Mobile technology, social media,
and the ever-increasing demands on our time leave us feeling as though the
whole world is gathered around our door expecting something from us. Rarely, if
ever, do we take the time to find that “deserted place” that was so important
in the life and ministry of Jesus. That’s the purpose of the Lenten fast.
In these weeks of Lent, you are invited into the Lenten fast
so that you might feast on God’s presence in your life. Fasting shouldn't be an exercise in sacrificial penance, it should be a means through which you can "set the table" to feast on that which God so graciously and eagerly desires to offer. You're encouraged to
incorporate practices such as silence and meditation, small group
conversation, service, and generosity into the rhythm of your daily life. In setting the table, you'll prepare a way for the Spirit to feed your spiritual hunger with
God’s resurrection promise.
How do you intend to "set the table?"
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