Fast

" Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. The Tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."  Jesus answered, 'It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'." [Matthew 4: 1-4].

Recently, a  book was published entitled, "Eat. Pray. Love." It details the spiritual journey of a woman recovering from a nasty divorce. She eats her way through Italy. She prays in India. Eventually she finds love again.

In catalogues, you often see bracelets, inspirational plaques, keychains that say: "Live. Love. Laugh."

What is going on  here? What are we looking for? Peace . . . . Compassion. . . . . Something Larger than ourselves.

When I read Matthew 4, I get a very different prescription than these contemporary messages . This Scripture teaches Fast, not Eat. It teaches us to Pray. And to Give, not Love.

During Lent, we Christians practice these three things, even more than ever:         Fast. Pray. Give.

We fast because Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone."

I have to say I really do not like this Fasting one bit. I struggled with getting enough to eat as it is, as a child. Sometimes I went to bed hungry. I developed a "Food Strategy". (A child in grade school should not have to have a Food Strategy.) I ate a lot in the school cafeteria because I knew that I would not get enough to eat at home. I would hoard any candy given to me in my room and eat only a few pieces a week.

So what is this Fasting we must do?

For me, there are all kinds of Fasting. It can be simply about not giving full play to the excesses around me.  I make my fasting about my Redemption. It is about getting enough to eat now, and eating all the things my body needed as a child. So I do not waste my time on excess amounts of sweets, soda, salty snacks. It is about honoring my body as a temple from God.

It is also about avoiding the other excesses that have become our modern traps -- overload on media, overcrowding my schedule, wasted speech such that descends into gossip, stocking up on things I do not really need.

A priest would counsel being obedient to God. Sometimes towards the end of the day, I almost resent the sunset, because my day is over and I have so many things yet on my To-Do list.

So I invented  a more sacred way to "put the day to bed". In a pretty basket, I have written down on slips of paper all the quiet things I could do for about half an hour, before the bustle of dinner time, homework duty, and bath time drag me screeching into the night. Quiet things like writing in my journal, listening to music, doing needlework. I have my son pick a slip out of the basket. This determines what I will do for my Quiet Time.

This is an exercise in Obedience because I am forced to accept doing that one thing, to the exclusion of all the others.  I am forced to let go of all the other things on my plate. I am forced to tell myself that this one thing is worth doing and doing well.  So then I sit and engage in my Quiet Time with focus and clarity, being mindful of the present moment. It is like a retreat. It is like a prayer.

God, in my Fasting, may I know that I live not only by the earthly things that I need, but by everything that comes from Your Word!

(c) The Spiritual Devotional 2011. All Rights Reserved.