Lent Devotion: Fasting, Day One

I'm a child of America, the most consumer-minded country in the world. I'm a child of the 70's, a.k.a. 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, and I've been reading the works of others to seek clarity.

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. 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.

I'm choosing to think about fasting as what I gain rather than what I give up. 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? Are you giving up or are you creating space.