I'm working on writing a resource for our congregation for February and March. It will be a daily devotion resource for all of us to look at how we are connecting to God on a regular basis. John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist movement) called these the "means of grace." These are the ways (means) by which God makes it possible to know Him. Others call these "disciplines." When we submit to these ways of life we discipline ourselves to focus on God. Still others call these "practices," because we need to daily practice seeing God in our life.
One of these practices is a real challenge to me. I'm a child of America, the most consumer minded country in the world. I'm a child of the 70's, aka the "Me" decade. The notion of the Spiritual practice of fasting just doesn't show up on my radar very often. So I've been praying as I've been writing and I've been reading the works of others to seek clarity. Now I've come to a new way of thinking about this Spiritual Practice. It actually came to me not while I was writing, but when I was reading.
One of the things I do when I read is write in the margins of the book to make sure I can quickly access the important points. Sometimes I just put a check mark. Sometimes I repeat what the author wrote. Sometimes I argue with the author by writing my own thoughts. The point, though, is the margin. And the greater the margin the more opportunity I have to be in conversation with the author.
Fasting is about the margin. The author of my life is God. But God allows me to determine how much margin I provide in the book of my life. Fasting isn't about giving something up. That's the notion many of us have. If you grew up in the traditional church you may have thought about it in terms of what you were going to give up during the season of Lent. Others think about fasting in the medical field when we go without eating or drinking prior to a procedure, test or surgery. For most of us, fasting is giving up. I'm choosing to think about it as what I gain. When I fast I am creating space to be in conversation with God.
How wide is your margin? Maybe just as important is the question, how often do you provide margin? Is your life, your diet, your day so busy and full that there is no margin for the author of your life to annotate it with His own commentary?
5 comments:
Patrick had left a comment and then deleted it. Thanks for chiming in, I don't know why you backed off. I would respond that i beleive God has given us the free will to completely opt to exclude Him from our lives. I also believe that we can decide just how much we're going to let God in. That's the margin to which I refer.
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