‘ “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” ’ – Matthew 6:16-18
Ash Wednesday occurred on yesterday to signal the start of the season of Lent: a time designated to commemorate when Christ fasted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and was tempted by satan to forego the preparation for and work of His earthly ministry.
Yet and still, I still can’t help but feel as though the observance of Lent is yet another strange concoction of man. I often hear people talk about what they’re giving up for Lent who I know for a fact are NOT Catholic! Besides, as pointed out in the initial scripture, one of the tenets of fasting is not to outwardly show that you are fasting – rather, it should be something that only He Who can observe and judge the heart can see:
‘But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth ; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.’ – 1 Samuel 16:7
So if a person is serious about their fast – they wouldn’t necessarily be so quick to discuss with others what they’re giving up.
Besides, much like Jesus’ portrayed images that the Catholic Church commissioned artists to render, the petty things that we choose to give up pale in comparison to Jesus; Who through spiritual discipline, meditated on the word of God to sustain Him through the denial of His flesh by abstaining from food for 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS – not just until 6pm for a day or so like some “fasts” are these days.
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YHWH’s Way
a.k.a.
A Frank Sonnet
My way pales in
comparison to Christ’s like His
ol’ blue-eyed image!
~
My argument today is that our fasting attempts, while noble to many, are superficial. I know this personally because mine were once superficial as a Catholic and for the first few years that I continued to commit to it after I left the Catholic Church. What we give up for a fast should be something that we seek to cut out of our lives for good. It’s just like repenting which means to literally “turn from” sin. It’s no point to repent if instead of doing a “180” you make the common mistake of doing a “360”:
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Return to Sinner
Returning to sin
Once you’ve turned to repent wastes
What envelops you.
*
Short-Changed
When turning from sin,
Three-sixty degree spins is
Short-lived repentance.
~
Jesus was indwelt and enveloped in the Holy Spirit – It is what bestowed His power to Him and what bestows power within us as Paul’s statement to the Church of Ephesus infers:
‘Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…’ (Ephesians 3:20 – emphasis added)
But in typical “religious” fashion, meaning things man does out of repetitious tradition without true knowledge and understanding, we’ve relegated a demotion to fasting within our day to day living.
The two titles of this entry play off of the term and phrase “ashen” and “flash in the pan,” respectively. While Merriam Webster defines “ashen” as being deadly pale; the phrase “flash in the pan” refers to the Fool’s Gold that induced false hopes and lacked real worth for many pan handlers during the Gold Rush. As such, the titles imply that we have dumbed down fasting to “flashing” our religion to others in a way that pales in comparison to the power that results when we deny the flesh and look to the Spirit of God to sustain us and replace what we’ve decided to abstain from.
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Flash Wednesday
Compared to the real
Thing, dead works offer a fast-
paced flash in the pan.
*
Ash in the Pan
a.k.a.
An Aerosol Heir Assault
Ash in a can splashed
Upon heads quickly stiffens
Religious beliefs.
~
None of us can deny ourselves food for the rest of our lives but it can be done for days and weeks at a time when coupled with a steady regiment dedicated to the edification of one’s spirit through scriptural study. How many times can you recall a prophet being told to “eat the scroll” that an angel of the Lord provided to him in the Bible?
When we eat we process the food. We break it down so that its essentials can be absorbed into our body. The same type of process should be happening when we read scripture which is how I interpret Paul’s instruction in 2 Timothy 2:15 when it says “rightly dividing the word of truth”:
‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.’
In the same breath, scripture also prescribes a progression of sorts as we grow from the milk (which can metaphorically be represented by the things we do out of religion and tradition) provided to us babes in Christ to the meat afforded to us as full-fledged adults:
‘I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it; neither yet now are ye able.’
– 1 Corinthians 3:2
Milk, when given to a baby within a balanced, nutritional plan, prepares his/her system to digest soft foods which eventually leads to meat and other food. Such physical steps provide us with an excellent model for our spiritual growth, as well.
I grew from giving up video games for forty days as a Catholic youth to repenting from listening to secular rap all together as a Christian man.
I grew from giving up premarital sex as an immature young adult in a monogamous relationship for forty days to renewing my vow of chastity until marriage as a Christian adult.
I grew from abstaining from soft pornography and masturbation for forty days to repenting from even lustfully looking at a woman other than my wife as a husband – a title I share with Jesus Christ Whose Bride is the Church.
So there is something to be said for progression from superficial sacrifices to a better standard of living as determined by God’s holy righteousness versus my own perverted rationalities.
So to those who had the ashes placed on your foreheads on yesterday, I pray that there is substance behind what you’ve given up; because I know for a fact that it can lead to a Christian walk that will increase in freedom as you give up the things that once enslaved you. If it did it for me, it can do it for you!
Isaiah 58:3-14 NKJV (subtitled “True Fasting” in the Catholic Bible):
‘ “Why have we fasted,” they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord? “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ’
