Lent blog party Day 8. slow is the new fast

So a little bit of free advice. When you begin the next day of the Mars Hill Lent plan, make sure to check it out the night before.

Anyway, as I sat down at about ten thirty this morning eating my bowl of frosties eager to check out what my lent challenge was today, I was a little bit disheartened to see that today I had to fast during daylight hours. Oops. Fail.

Moving on I decided to finish up and start afresh, so I did. I didn't eat for the rest of the day until about six in the evening. The last time I fasted I felt like I learned a lot. This time I didn't. Maybe it was the length of time, maybe it was the fact I wasn't really prepared. But I didn't feel any different doing it. Unlike last time where I could see and feel God moving me and changing me.

But maybe this time that wasn't the point. Maybe how I feel God is speaking to me about me was not the point.

It's only now that I am writing this do I think it has hit me.

So I went a few hours without food. Big deal. I had a bowl of frosties then a few hours later I had fish and chips for dinner. Oh and a cupcake for dessert. Woopdy doo! And did I mention I drank fruit juice during the day to replace food?

Maybe this time God is telling me though that I have enough. Maybe he is reminding me that there are people who have nothing.

I've said I think this lent will be about reminders for me and so far I have been proven right. Reminders that God is big enough to deal with anything. Reminders that God loves me. And today, a reminder that I don't need much. Not really.

Giving things up is what most people do for lent. But what if are required to go further? What if we are required to give things up and then use the resources (be it time, money, ourselves) to invest in others. What if we have only really begun to scratch the surface?

I'm not going to pretend that I do those things. Because I don't. Well certainly not as much as I think we are called to.

I am grateful that this lent there will be opportunities for us to do that. To be sacrificial, not for the sake of being sacrificial, but for the sake of others. I hope like everything on the calendar I won't just let it change me for forty days or so but my life will change so I love people better all the time.

So maybe the question is not, what are you giving up for lent, but who are you loving for lent?

Posted in: fasting,great Lent blogging extravaganza