When less becomes more

Last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent began again and will be with us until Easter. As the Advent season prepares us for Christmas, Lent is the preparation for Good Friday.

As we see in today’s scripture, which was probably written about 800 years before Christ, fasting is a very old custom, which probably existed long before Christianity. Originally, during Lent, the eating of meat was renounced, and many people still do this today. Meat used to stand for wealth and so one wants to renounce certain luxuries during this time.

This tradition has however changed over the years. Meat and sausages have become commonplace in our lives and therefore many people look at other ways of fasting. Fasting has nothing to do with vegetarianism, rather it has to do with renouncing something which is important to one.

So nowadays some fast by giving up sweets or coffee, also types of food which are more important to them than meat. In our computer era, many people fast from social networks, they take a time-out from Facebook and Co. where much of their time is “wasted”.

It is irrelevant how one fasts, as long as it is a voluntary and conscious renunciation of something important to one. This renunciation should prepare us for that which is ahead of us, Good Friday, with its sorrow of death and the joy that the penalty for our sin was paid for at the cross.

God appreciates it when we renounce something for His glory, when we focus more on His glory than on the other things which has become important to our worldly lives. In this manner, renunciation can be to the glory of our Lord, who did so much for us.

Would you like to fast this year?

I wish you a blessed time, in which you prepare your heart fully for Easter!

Rainer Gigerich