Lent’s Meat

 My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me.”

—Jesus

It is the fourth week of Lent and I’m listening. Listening for the release from the bondage of religious discipline. Listening for the love that compels me to choose restraint over indulgence. I listen even in the moments when I break my fast in order to feast. Is this whole thing driven by “the shoulds” or guilt ? Is gratitude the thing that is going to drive my inner conversation with God. Why do I even do this? 

Lent snuck up on me this year and I didn’t take too much time to be intentional about my fasting choice. I just made a quick decision and went for it and here we are in the middle. Is my fast transforming me more into the image of Christ? I wish I could measure the difference of what this is doing in me, but I can’t other than to notice difference in my digestive system and to recognize that I eat portions of food normally that are way too large! 

Fasting is hard. Any type! To choose weakness so we can feast on the most important takes work, humility and a huge reliance on the power that is not of yourself, but of the Spirit. 

I want lent to birth in me a longing for the holy…a longing to know I am loved in the face of my sins and a longing to be free in God’s will. By the time we get to Holy Week I want to be ready to stand at the cross and the tomb transformed inwardly by the Gospel—by the God I believe in. Not by my “hanger”for food . This is what I’m after:

6 

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?

7 

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

9 

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.

11 

The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

(Isaiah 58:6-12)

May it be so!