“So what are you giving up for Lent?”
I hear this question every year, usually on Ash Wednesday or a day or two after. Reality sets in and I realize that I have forgotten to think of something to give up for the 40 days. I’m unprepared for the question and I haven’t given real thought to fasting from something.
“Oh well, guess I’ll do something next year.”
And yet again, I miss out on participating in this practice of the church to ready myself for Easter.
But here’s the question, why do we fast during Lent? Or a better and more general question, why do we fast?
While we read about a variety of characters from the Bible participating in fasts, it seems that this ancient practice is not that well understood. We don’t understand the point of fasting. Maybe we don’t know how to fast and wonder if there are different ways to participate in the exercise. Is there any good literature on fasting out there? Maybe we would be more willing to practice fasting on our own if we knew what to expect and hearing about someone’s experience with the practice would be helpful.
Therein lies the point of this series on fasting. During the season of Lent (March 6ththrough April 18ththis year), we are looking to explore different aspects of the practice of Fasting. We are planning to have a variety of posts covering everything from the basics of how to fast, to a look at Biblical characters and fasting, book reviews on the topic, to testimonies of people’s experiences of going without.
We launch into this series today so you can start to consider how you may want to participate in Lent this year (you have about 3 weeks). In the next few weeks we’ll start with the basics of the practice, which may help you land on a way in which you can take part in this practice that goes hand-in-hand with the Lenten season
So…
“What are you giving up for Lent?”
Check out these Fasting posts by topic by clicking the bullet point below:
written by, Matt Hodgson, Spiritual Life Development Department, USA East
