Fast to Feast: thoughts on observing Lent

What Lent means, literally.

It seems like many people are doing Lent this year – or at least more are posting about it on Facebook. This will be the first year I’ve participated in the fast (no TV for me!) and as such I’ve decided to do a bit of research and thinking about it, especially regarding the benefits of observing Lent and the best way to go about it.

But before we get to this, I must share the first question that naturally came to mind when I started my musings: “What does Lent mean?” I asked. I don’t mean “What is it all about?” or even “What does it mean to me, personally?” But literally, what does the word lent mean? I’m curious, you know? (And I’m married to a linguist, so this kind of question is to be expected).

I let my brain do some of its own internal research as I lay in bed “falling asleep” the eve before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent). It ran something like this: “Lent? Perhaps its related to the word relent, as in “a period of relenting from sin”? Or maybe the past tense verb lent, like “I am giving back that which I’ve been lent from God”? No wait – it’s clearly Latin because the origins of Lent lie in Medieval Catholicism. Despite my almost non-existent Latin, verses from Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus” spring to mind: “O lente, lente currite noctis equi!” or “O, run slowly, slowly, horses of the night!” Slowly? Really?

Actually, a quick trip to the Oxford English Dictionary makes me somewhat embarrassed to call myself a medievalist. Lent is not a Latin word in this case – but Middle English. Lent, from lenten, refers to the season of Spring and may derive from the Old English lencten, meaning to lengthen (i.e. Spring is the season in which the days lengthen). I guess I should have checked Chaucer before Marlowe.

All right then, lent means spring. Moving on…

What Lent means, practically.

Lent is the forty day period prior to Easter (excluding Sundays) during which Catholic and a number of Protestant denominations engage in fasting. In the Middle Ages, Lent functioned as a counterpoint to something we might call the carnival impulse – that practice of delighting in the flesh (carne), which of course we all do in some form or another. For the medievals, Lent usually involved fasting from meat and other rich foods, those luxuries which the body enjoys. However, what Lent was really meant to signify through such a fast was a rejection of the bodily corruption indulged in during the feasts and other carnival-esque activities and excess. For them, Lent’s significance was intended to be spiritual, and the Lenten fast was meant to counter the damning effects of the carnival impulse and help make one right with God again.

Now, not all Christians observe Lent (growing up, it was never something I was aware of in any of the churches I attended). And many have stayed away from the Lenten fast citing the danger of falling into a works mentality or mere ritual. Certainly for the medievals, not all was right; while many likely participated in Lent because of an awareness of sin, there existed the danger of viewing it as a convenient way to compensate for the carnival impulses, without intending to renounce and turn from the sin. Back then, as today, I am sure that some participated in genuine contrition and repentance, while others, as is so easy to do, would have found it a useful means to ease a guilty conscience and procure insurance for the sin which they knew would damn them, but had no intention of turning from because it was so enjoyable. In the latter case, the spiritual significance of Lent gets turned on its head, for its main goal is to be free the rest of the year to cater to the desires of the carne and indulge oneself in sin.

Today, I think Lent is often de-spiritualized in a different way. It can be less about compensating for sin, and instead becomes an opportunity to exercise our human will, a moment of self-discipline meant to aid us in experiencing the kind of purification found in self-denial. It’s a chance to prove to ourselves that we can abstain from Facebook for a month and a half. Or it’s a chance to experience the health benefits of avoiding sugar. These are not bad motives, but I can’t help but feel they miss out on the best!

What Lent can mean.

What is the best? The Bible says that it is to “glorify God” in whatever I eat, drink or do, including the act of abstaining from these things (1^st Cor.10:31). The Psalmist puts forward this sole vision for his life: “one thing I have asked from the Lord, that I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to see the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4). John Piper sums it up with a reference back to the Westminster Catechism: “the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.” So how might I use Lent to glorify God by enjoying Him? How might I return to the spiritual meaning of Lent, without falling into the traps of works-based righteousness or attempted bargaining with God or mere ritual? Here are two things that I’ve come up with:

First, consider carefully what to fast from:

Think about fasting from something that distracts you from God. Do you spend 30 minutes a day checking Facebook photos? Or 45 minutes watching an episode of The Mentalist? Or 2 hours listening to music during your commute? Or 16 hours a day accessing the convenience of your iphone? None of these are sin – many are good! – but they can take time away from communing with and hearing from God. Consider such a fast.

Or something that you enjoy…maybe even a teensy bit more than you enjoy God? The point is not to say that chocolate, meat or shopping are evil. But might a time away from these things make us more aware of these things as blessings from God’s hand? Might a time away from these things demonstrate that we are serious about first cultivating our enjoyment of God? Consider such a fast.

Or something that offers an area of temptation for you. I don’t mean sin – we should be striving to permanently fast from sin and shouldn’t give ourselves the option of sinning the rest of the year if we can but manage to abstain for forty days. But think about places or activities or even people which seem to make it a greater challenge for you to keep from sinning. They prove a special weakness for you at this point in your life in terms of falling into sin. Are there things that God has been whispering that you should give up in wisdom, and you’ve been ignoring Him because you think you can do the dance and avoid falling down? Might a time away be spiritually wise? Consider such a fast.

Second, consider carefully why you are fasting:

Fasting in the Bible is often used to express our sorrow over something (2^nd Samuel 1:11-12, Neh.1:3-7). For the medievals, Lent was meant to be a time of mourning over sin, a time of repentance, a time of penitence. Christians are called to regularly confess our sin to God so as to keep fellowship with Him and actively engage in His work of freeing us from the power of sin in our lives(1^st John 1:5-9). Lent can be a yearly opportunity, a season built into our calendar, to humble ourselves, confess our sin, meditate on God’s holiness and our sinfulness, be convicted of these, and genuinely repent (that is, seek to turn from sin, not just store up “good points” in an attempt to outweigh our sin). Use the Lenten fast to declare to God that you are serious about His desire that you walk in holiness. Use the Lenten fast to physically support your mental decision to turn from sin, and to physically fuel your heart’s resolve to do so.

Fasting enables us to become more aware of our weakness, need, and selfishness, and to realize our dependency on God (Ps. 109:21-24). Have you ever fasted from food before? (Please don’t try this for forty days!) I tell you, the moment you lapse in judgment and walk into your college’s dining hall and smell those delectable fibs (“fake ribs”), you experience a monumental flood of desire: you are overwhelmed with how hungry and weak you are feeling, how much you want food, and just to what extent you might go to provide for yourself. You realize how much time and effort you usually spend during the day satisfying yourself and caring for yourself so that you don’t need to feel this way. And, if you allow your thoughts to go there, you realize that this is just a small picture, a tangible experience, of your deep spiritual need. Use Lent to re-sharpen your sensitivity to your great need for God. Use Lent to re-awaken you to an awareness of what stuff you are made of and what is in you.

Fasting is used to cultivate Godly self-discipline. Here we can engage in the Spirit’s work of producing self-control within us (Gal.5:22-25). Here we have a tangible opportunity to submit to God’s sanctifying work in us by learning to die to self. I believe that if we are in the habit of restraining our desire for good things, we will have a better time restraining our desires for evil things. Use Lent to strengthen your self-control and to weaken the habit of surrendering to self’s priorities instead of God’s.

Lent: fast to feast.

Until now, any of the last three points could be modified to leave God out of the picture – you could fast as a way of mourning, or fast to remind yourself of your weakness, or fast to exercise your self-discipline. This last point then is crucial. In the Bible, fasting is used to open up a space, a silence, an opportunity to meet with God. It is a way to return to Him (Joel 2:12-13).

Human beings are never vacuums or voids. We are always filled with something. If I remove dessert from my diet, I will replace it with something – salad hopefully, whining possibly, but certainly another activity during the time in which I would have eaten dessert. If I fast from Facebook, I may use that time to invest in youtube. If I stop listening to music while I clean the dishes, I will still listen to something – perhaps silence, or my own thoughts, or the sound of construction next door. What if during the 10 minutes I’d normally spend having dessert and coffee, I found a quiet place and thanked God for his grace to me? What if I took my 30 minutes of Facebook time and used them to read God’s word and pray, communing with Him and interceding for others? What if I filled the music-less silence with meditating on Scripture that I had memorized and asking God to speak with me? Consider how I would be trading the good for the best! Imagine how I would be enjoying God, experiencing His presence, growing in His holiness, rejoicing in His grace! Think about how this would honour Him, how it would declare “Your love is better than life!” (Ps.63:3), how it would bring Him glory!

You see, we have returned to the best. We have abstained from good things in order that we might gain something greater. We have fasted that we might feast. Use Lent to spend more time communing with God in the Word and in prayer (Dan.9:2-4). Use Lent to not only fast from something, but also to take that newly opened space and use it to return to God. Fast from the good in order to feast on the best.

What Lent means, to the glory of God.

Lent leads up to Easter, to the celebration of that most central event in all of history – that moment when God broke the power of sin and death over us, that place where His love and justice met in the humiliated and broken body of the Holy Man, that victory in which God purchased a people for Himself that they might enjoy Him forever and in doing so, glorify Him. This is the moment we celebrate at Easter – and this is the climax to which Lent leads. We break our fast with a celebration of the Gospel. And what a wonderful way to prepare ourselves to celebrate what our God has accomplished! What an opportunity to humble ourselves in surrender to God, to view ourselves and our sin as they truly are, to declare that we are serious about Him, to actively participate in His progressive transformation of our lives to holiness, and to experience that for which He saved us, namely to spend time with Him, to know Him, to love Him, to enjoy Him, to glorify Him.

This Lent, I’ve given up watching TV; it’s an area of temptation for me which rivals my time and affections for God. But I’ve also replaced it with something. Each week I meditate on a single Psalm and I have committed time every day to read the Psalm, memorize part of it, meditate on it and talk with God over it. I have missed a few days, but when I do I resolve to stick with it, moving past the failure by trusting God to help me choose His best one day at a time, knowing that He saved me for such a purpose.

Are you participating in Lent this year? What are you fasting from? What are you feasting on? O that we will fast in order to really and truly feast!

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The Disappearance of God: a resolutely hopeful book of warnings

What’s your view on the existence of hell? Does the term “church discipline” have any meaning to you? How do we maneuver a God-glorifying balance of maintaining cultural sensitivity and relevance with Biblical truth and imperative? Has anyone ever offered you counsel, wisdom or even – gasp - warning about these things? How much warning literature do you read (aside from the Bible)? Do you read so much that you find it difficult to trust a Christian from a different church because you are afraid of uncovering heresy at every turn? Or do you read only those books which confirm a happy and calm state of mind, which don’t participate in something so archaic as fear-mongering?

Some things, I am convinced, merit warning, serious warning. It is true, some of us are so steeped in it that we honestly need to step back and spend some time actively trusting God to sustain His Kingdom-work in this world, learning to love selflessly and be less self-defensive. However, my guess is that for the majority of us, reading a book full of warnings is not something that occupies a lot of our time (unless it’s a joke column listing ridiculous warnings that are found on some products, such as “Do not eat” on an electric can opener). I’ve read a few (books full of warnings, I mean, not the jokes), and this is one which I found very appropriate and timely, and especially suitable for people for which this is the first foray into warning literature. This little book offers a useful survey of a few very significant ways in which God is “disappearing” from Western church doctrine and culture. An intentionally provocative term, “disappearance” as Mohler uses it refers to the apparent trend of rejecting the truth about God’s character and will as revealed in the Bible, and replacing it with one of our own choosing.

One of the greatest strengths of this book is Mohler’s ability to pack the basics of the issues into a concise and yet provocative study. I’ve been told that the book originated on his blog, and if so, I can certainly see this reflected in its composition and content: the chapters are short (short enough, I believe, for someone not-so-academically-inclined to read and enjoy and learn from without getting worn out or bored) and the discussions are well balanced in unpacking some pretty thought-provoking ideas while generally operating at a layman’s level of expertise. (I think some terms like “penal substitution” and “liberalism” do go undefined, but can largely be understood from the context. And if you occasionally need to reach for the dictionary or google a word, remember that so many of us easily spend forty-five minutes jumping from video to video through youtube links, that we can probably handle looking up a few definitions!) This book does assume that the reader is a Christian with some knowledge of the topics, which is a reasonable expectation; hell and sin are two such topics general to the Christian faith, and even the more specific movement of the emerging church is likely a label which most Western Christians have come across at some point. Each chapter offers you enough to be informed and properly oriented to the discussion at hand, while pointing the reader to further resources and areas for consideration. In many ways the chapters are jumping-off points. If you never have another chance to properly research the debate around the existence of Hell (aside from your personal study of the Bible and exposure to Sunday preaching), the respective chapter offers sufficient warning. However, the chapters also work to pique reader interest, and I think many readers will come away from the book wanting to further invest in equipping themselves to respond to these issues in a God-honouring way.

As is clear from above, there are a range of topics covered in the book. These include the disappearance of the Biblical concepts of hell and sin and the need for missions and preaching from Christian belief and practice. The Emerging Church movement is also discussed for three chapters and I appreciated Mohler’s conclusion: “The Emerging Church and its leaders are right to insist that substance must be preferred to superficiality. We can only pray and hope that they will remember and acknowledge that substance requires a substantial and honest embrace of truth” (95). Now, obviously I am coming from a position which is largely in line with Mohler’s own and I don’t expect that those of you with Emerging Church leanings will simply bow to each claim Mohler makes – but I think, I hope, you will find that he treats the movement and its leaders with fairness, as he attempts to respectfully but adamantly draw our attention to areas for concern. Mohler draws heavily on Carson’s book, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, and so if you have already read that, you probably won’t discover anything radically different – although, as I maintain, this book’s treatment has the benefit of brevity which makes it easier to remember.

The chapters which I really responded to the most include Mohler’s discussion of “A Christian version of Beauty,” in which he suggests that beauty is a concept in crisis, and that as Christians we must not divorce beauty from its proper relation to what is good, true and real – that is, from the glory of God. These were refreshing chapters despite the warnings, and I was particularly affected by the move he makes to suggest that “the confusion over beauty is not merely an item of cultural consternation, nor is it merely a matter of theological debate. It is a matter of redemption.” (56) Beauty and missions are related – and it’s a beautiful thing.

I also greatly appreciated his discussion of church discipline and the reality that the Western church now exists in an increasingly post-Christian culture and what our response to this should be. For those more pessimistic individuals among us (perhaps of an older generation disappointed with the direction of our culture, or of a younger generation jaded because we’ve read too much Nietzsche, or of any generation and owning a melancholy personality), the warnings of this book may not be new or shocking. However, the book is not a mere lament over change, nor does it fall into the tired rut of mourning the truism that the older must inevitably give way to the newer. If you are a younger reader, you are not excused in ignoring the book because you feel that in it you will find only the protests of the previous generation at the deviations of the following one. No, this book crosses generations, for it unites around the common grace that is given in the conviction of the absolute truthfulness of Scripture. Change itself is not the issue. Change in our attitude towards the truth of God’s revealed Word is. Our response, however, in light of the solemn warnings is not to be pessimism, and this was a point I found particularly striking. How easy to pile warning upon warning about how our culture and, more seriously, the church is turning away from the Living God and to then shake our heads and give up! It’s hopeless! It’s inevitable! We just have to resign ourselves and survive it! But Mohler makes it clear that there is no place for pessimism, and this is so refreshing in a book so (necessarily) burdened with warning.

I leave you with his words and encourage you to go out and find a copy of this hopeful book of warnings.

He writes, “In reality, we have no right to be either optimistic or pessimistic. To be either optimistic or pessimistic is to be deluded, and in some sense to deny the sovereignty of God. We cannot be pessimistic because Scripture tells us we are to be a people of hope. Of course, that does not mean that we are a naïve and ignorant people of hope who close our eyes to the reality around us. No, we find hope in something that is far more secure than anything this culture can secure.”(173)

What are we to be?

“We are to be the community of the open-eyed, the intellectually alert, the brokenhearted, and the resolutely hopeful.” (174)

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Whatever you do...be it eat, drink or shampoo

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (I Corinthians 10:31)
 
This is the blog post where I share my not-so-cohesive ideas about living an increasingly healthy lifestyle. The reason it will be not-so-cohesive is because, ironically, I'm coming down with something and my head is achy, my sinuses are clogging and my general faculties are groggy. Having said that, this is a post I've been meaning to write for a while - so why let a little mid-semester cold keep me from it? Prepare for lots of broth and baking soda ahead.  

There are four things that I've been intending to do in an effort to live more health-consciously, and three of them have been implemented, at long last. The fourth will, alas, likely have to wait until January. My reasons for these life changes are many, but some of the more significant include the desire to be a good steward of my body so that I can honour God in my body, a growing awareness of the degree of toxicity to which I expose my body (and brain),the desire to overcome the sometimes heavy weight of moodiness/weariness/now-and-then-depression, and (please, no need to start rumours here) the desire to get my body ready for potentially one day carrying and caring for another life. So, "What are these changes?" you might ask.

•  GAPS diet - This stands for the "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" diet . A good friend of mine got me onto this and currently has her family on it. More information is available at the websites listed below, but very briefly, the premise behind this diet is that for many people, our gut is populated with bad gut flora (for a number of reasons, which you can read about on the sites) and as a result toxins are able to seep from our gut into the bloodstream and eventually into our brain. The bad gut flora breaks down the blood/brain barrier, which as you can imagine has a myriad of negative consequences. Two of the ones that are particularly relevant to me are poor digestion and moodiness/irritability/occasional depression. So what is a girl to do?
  
  According to the GAPS diet, the key is in giving my gut a chance to recover by starving the bad gut flora of the things they thrive on so that they die and disappear, and facilitating the re-population of good gut flora by eating certain types of foods, particularly probiotics. The do not eats consist of sugar (refined sugar - white, brown, whatever...we get so much of this in our North American diet that it's ridiculous), grains (wheat, rice, qinoa, oats, etc. These aren't bad in and of themselves, but they're harder to digest and so if you are filling yourself with them, your body is concentrated on digesting them and isn't able to take the energy to counter the bad gut flora; moreover, we definitely get too much of this in our diet as well), and starchy foods that are converted into sugar in your body (good-bye potatoes). The do eats consist of homemade meat broths (chicken, beef, fish...organic or specialty, so that they aren't full of hormones and antibiotics), meats, vegetables, fruits, eggs and probiotics (such as organic plain yogurt). I've been eating this latter way for about a month and a half, and have been feeling a lot more energetic and less moody - of course, this was before I broke the diet for a wedding and Thanksgiving, and go figure, now I'm sick! ;) Okay, so the correlation of the two isn't necessarily one to one. But needless to say, I'm looking forward to going back on the diet.
  
  I'm going to be starting with the intro diet, which is much more restrictive, but is important in promoting initial and faster healing of the gut (to "heal and seal" the gut, as they say). After that, my goal is to spend approximately two years following the diet pretty strictly. It might seem intense at first, but really - based on my month and a half experience - it's been not only doable, but enjoyable. It actually feels good to be eating healthily and to take control of that aspect of who I am. And I've gotten much more creative with recipes (banana pancakes? cabbage role casserole? superb sphaghetti squash and swiss-chard infused meatballs? delish!). If you're interested in finding out more, here are some useful sites. The first is the "official site" (there is a book you can buy...but who reads expensive books anymore with the convenience of the internet?!...kidding), and the others are blogs from people who are health conscious and are doing or have done the diet for various reasons. These other blogs are a bit more readable, boiling down the information to the basics.
• http://gapsdiet.com/INTRODUCTION_DIET.html
• http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2010/02/the-gaps-diet-what-it-is-and-why-you-might-consider-doing-it.html
• http://www.healthhomehappy.com/grain-free-2/gaps
• http://www.wellfedhomestead.com/recipes/
•  Shampoo-free! Say what? No shampoo? It's true! Starting last Saturday I have ceased to use commercial shampoo and conditioner products on my oh-so-long-desperately-in-need-of-a-cut hair. The reason? It's toxic. Do you know the chemicals that are in these products? I didn't, though I'd heard whisperings on the winds at dark hours of the night...or something. Indeed, many of the products we dump on our precious heads or lather on our beautiful skin have been shown to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and just downright dangerous over the long run. Follow this link to see a quick run-down of the warnings. Not only that, but the products we use strip our heads and hair of their natural oils and can actually contribute to greater oiliness! But never fear, long before the mid-twentieth century women were washing their hair and still managing to look fabulous. So what can you wash it with that isn't so toxic? I've starting making up a 'shampoo' out of 1 Tbsp baking soda mixed in 1 cup water, which I pour on my wet hair (scalp) in the shower and then massage around for two minutes before rinsing out. Then I get 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar mixed in 1 cup water and dip my hair into the jar, pouring the excess mixture higher up on my hair, but avoiding the scalp. This works as a conditioner - and it actually does work! I'm currently in the "adjustment period" where my hair is supposed to be super oily because I've stopped using shampoo. It actually looks and feels quite nice, so that might just my luck! But at any rate, this adjustment period is different for different people - but once you're over the two to three weeks, your oils get all nice and balanced and your hair (apparently) looks great. I'll let you know when I get there, but I've definitely got no complaints right now!
• A useful and fun site for natural beauty products: http://www.crunchybetty.com/no-poo-to-you-too
• More natural beauty products! In addition to saying good-bye to shampoo and conditioner, I've also moved on to natural deodorant (so as to avoid the aluminum that's in our wonderful anti-perspirants); this is a bit pricey and it too has an "adjustment period" as your body has to get used to a different way of dealing with the pleasant aroma of sweat. At the moment I just don't have the time to try some of the home-made recipes, so I'm sticking with something from the health food store. Seems to be working - but you can be the judge of that next time we're together! I've also started washing my face with unpasteurized honey, which acts as an anti-bacterial cleaning agent. I'm not quite convinced that this is working for me, but I'll give it a few more weeks (I might just need some better honey). Still, it tastes nice at the end of the day...! This was an idea I got off of the Crunchy Betty blog.
• Exercise? This is the fourth item on my list and, what with the rest of my responsibilities and endeavors, will have to remain on the back-burner a while longer. Having said that, I do try to go on walks or walk to the grocery stores as often as I have a chance. Every little bit counts in staying active, right?

That is all for now. Phew, that took a while to write! But hopefully it was of some interest to some of you. Remember that these are just things that I've been implementing for myself and I'm in no way a professional or authority on matters of health - you need to find out what's best for you.

Care to share your experiences with any the above? What do you do to promote a healthy lifestyle?

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