Give It Up!

Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Acts 3:19

This week we begin the Lenten season by celebrating Ash Wednesday. During this 40 day journey to Easter, Christians everywhere focus on repentance of our sins in anticipation of the forgiveness that Easter represents. Many Christians give up some food, habit, or activity that is unhealthy or damaging to them to remind them of Christ’s sacrifice for them. It’s a form of fasting!

One of the funniest movies ever, in my opinion, is Doctor Doolittle starring Eddie Murphy. His role is one of a doctor who can communicate with animals, and they can speak to him. There is a little monkey in the movie who speaks with a French accent and who obviously has a problem with alcohol. Every time something happens while he is under the influence, he throws down his bottle and exclaims, I Give It Up! This is a stretch for the idea of fasting, but it drives home the point.

Fasting has become a popular thing in our society to aid in weight loss and to teach discipline. Fasting is defined as abstaining from all or some kinds of food and drink, especially as a religious observance. Most fasting involves temporarily giving up something that you enjoy. When you long for something you love like a cookie, you reorient yourself to something healthier. It doesn’t sound nearly as tasty, but that’s the point.

Christians might fast for dietary purposes or physical benefits, but dietary goals aren’t what makes fasting Christian. When the Christians fasts, it’s about what spiritual fruits we might receive from God in response to our purposeful fasting.

There are purposes in fasting. When we fast there are some rewards that we are seeking, such as a more meaningful prayer life, seeking God’s guidance, expressing repentance, or just humbling ourselves before Him to express our love and devotion. Without a spiritual purpose, it’s not really Christian fasting, it’s just going hungry!!

Janna Firestone tells of a different idea of fasting in an article. She said, “Catherine Marshall used a different approach in her fasting. She chose to give up her criticalness. In doing so, she realized that most people didn’t seem to miss her negative comments or heated political debates. God seemed to replace the energy she used correcting others with a new creativity to positively influence them.”

In thinking of the many times I might be critical of someone or something, it seems like giving up criticalness for Lent is the right thing for me to concentrate upon during this season. Randy would say nagging is a close second!!

During the last year, it’s gotten easier for me to be critical of almost everything from quarantining to what’s on Netflix. What I really need to do is give it up and focus on the positive. Instead of a critical vision, I need God to be my vision.

A critical spirit can make us lose perspective, joy, and even relationships. It can also prevent the good work God wants to achieve through us. Consider what could happen as a result of your own criticalness fast. Pray for God to do the correcting while you focus on building up others.

One of our oldest and moving moving hymns is Be Thou My Vision written by an unknown Irish poet in the eighth century. Some think it might have been St. Patrick. It was a prayer asking God to be his vision, his wisdom and his best thought by day or night. These words seem appropriate as we give up some criticalness for this season.

Be Thou My Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that thou art; Thou my best thought by day or by night; Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light. Set to music by Audrey Assad