Lent & Fasting

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted...until I saw the title for my last one. Sorry about that.  Anyway, Happy Lent! :)
What is Lent, anyway?  Well, it's a Christian thing that begins on Ash Wednesday, and goes 40 days until Easter.  Ash Wednesday is always on Wednesday, is 40 days before Easter Sunday, and the ashes used, which are smeared onto our foreheads, are from the burning of the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday.  (Still with me?)

Miriam Webster defines "Lent", if I understand correctly, as "Spring" or "Springtime", which "includes a time of penitence & fasting, and is dated back to the 13th Century".  So no, it's not something that was practiced by the early church, nor is it in the Bible, nor something that Jesus told His followers to do, so you're not doomed to Hell if you don't fast from something for these 40 days.  Yet, it is a good spiritual discipline.

So what is this fasting time about, and from what are we to fast?  Many choose something like chocolate or pop (soda). But they don't replace it with a spiritual discipline...they just diet from the certain food for 40 days and tell everybody it's for Lent.  Some choose to fast from Television, and replace it with reading a book, or for youth, doing their homework instead. And though reading is a nice habit to replace TV with, unless it's the Bible they're reading, I don't see how it becomes a spiritual discipline.

Fasting is mentioned all throughout the Bible, and though it's most often associated with fasting from food, there are other things to fast from. Numbers 6, for instance, tells us about the voluntary vow of the Nazarite, which included fasting from anything off the vine (grapes, wine, grape juice, etc.), no shaving or hair cuts, and staying away from dead bodies (I'm sure the last one would be the easiest). But the whole point was “to separate themselves unto the LORD” for a determined amount of time, and during these days of separation, the person is to be "holy unto the LORD”.  So refraining from junk food for the body is good, but if there's no health food for the spirit, then how is one "holy unto the Lord"?

A few years back, I discovered more on this when I decided to fast from lunch, and replace my lunch breaks with prayer. Such was great for my spiritual journey, for my prayer time was more constant, as well as longer, but it also took a toll on my health, for I lost a lot of weight, which also lowered my immune system, and also caused some migraines. So this year, I thought I'd try something new...I'm fasting from worrying and stress. I got the idea because, for a few weeks before Lent, I was stressed out and worrying so much about something that it gave me chest pains, and it wasn't until the migraine that I realized something needs to change. Jesus even said that, medically speaking, worrying and stress can actually kill you.  Then He tells us to stop worrying, and give it up to the Father who knows our needs before we ask for them.  I think the hardest part of this though is that, well, you know like when you pray for patience, instead of giving you patience, the Lord puts you into situations where you'll have to train in patience? Or when you pray to be a better driver, and the Lord allows you to get into, or come close to getting into, accidents so that you'll learn quickly what not to do?  I'm finding more things to be worried and stressed about. 

But hey, nobody said fasting was easy.  And if it was, then it wouldn't be a very good spiritual discipline, would it?