This column ran in our local paper yesterday.
Let me state first that the author is not, as far as I can tell, someone with any theological education. In fact, the email address listed in the column shows that she works for the Southeastern Regional Medical Center.
Also, let me state that, and I know this is rich coming from me, it is always a good time to create good, healthy habits.
However, this is not, despite the column to the contrary, the point of Lent. Lent is not about us getting our flesh under control. It is about drawing closer to God in preparation for the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
These events, indeed the whole of the Gospel, point to the fact that we are not capable of perfecting ourselves through force of our human will but that we are totally reliant on the Grace and Compassion of God shown to us through Christ. To think that we can do it on our own smacks of Pelagianism, of works righteousness.
So, by all means, if you feel called to fast from something for the season of Lent, do so. But remember that it isn’t about “forming good habits” (outside of the forming the habit of fasting and prayer), but rather is about drawing closer to God.
If you want to give up sweets, give up sweets and don’t put a pseudo-religious veneer on it. Remember Christ’s instructions on fasting:
“16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive,e so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – (Mt 6:16–18, CSB)
Fasting, ultimately, isn’t about depriving yourself or forming a new habit, but creating the space in your life and heart to more fully rely on God and His Grace. Lent, and by extension fasting, “was understood as an opportunity to return to normal human life — the life of natural communion with God that was lost to us in the Fall.”[1]
Let this be our heart’s attitude toward fasting and the season of Lent.
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[1]Marjorie J. Thompson. Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. (Louisville, KY: Westminster-John Knox, 2014), 84.
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