Our Boy and His Cricket

...Lent serves as a reality check, when we remind ourselves that after years of spending time and money beautifying, primping, deodorizing, dressing up - and vesting - our bodies, they will be reduced to dust.

The purpose of fasting, and indeed of Lent, is not to make us depressed, but to remind us of our humanity in all its inadequacy and imperfections as the first step towards spiritual growth and development. Indeed, the word "Lent" is an Anglo-Saxon word for "spring" and comes from the same root as "lengthen." It is in the spring that the days lengthen and flowers and trees begin to blossom. So it seems especially propitious that Lent be a time when we employ forms of spiritual discipline to help us grow closer to God. Lent can be a time when the person God has created us to be can begin to take root and blossom.

Fasting is an ancient spiritual discipline but I would like to suggest that as a Lenten discipline, we engage in a spiritual fasting, as outlined in the following anonymous meditation.

Fast from judging others; feast on Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from fear of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on speech that purifies.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from negatives; feast on alternatives.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that sustains.
Fast from worry; feast on faith.