Death is a given in life whether or not people choose to think about it. While we would agree that to dwell on one’s death is a bit morbid, to not think about one’s impending death is repressing the inevitable.
Can you imagine what the Christian life would be like if Jesus said to his disciples (and us, by extension), “I’ve shown you how to live. Now get out there and do it!” Do you understand how frustratingly impossible that would be?
You know that guy who stands on the street corner with the sign, “Repent! For the kingdom of God is near!”? The message is ominous and, worse, that guy gives people this odd idea that repentance is transactional. Give up your bad behavior to get the good stuff God offers!
Lent is the journey of following after Christ. As the fisherman left their nets to follow him, so our fasting is leaving behind our comfort, what we’re used to, to follow after him. Yet his journey was one of death. In the same way, our journey with him is an abandonment of ourselves, dying to our desires for a comfortable life that keeps God merely as our co-pilot.
How much is too much? In the West it’s hard to know because overabundance is the norm. The ancient Christians thought overindulging was a deep vice, a habitual hidden sin in the heart. They called it gluttony and its meaning was “to gulp down.”
Having God’s Word sunk deeply in our hearts, like Jesus did, confronts the false reality that temptation offers. Our temptations are lousy substitutes for the things our hearts really long for; they never satisfy. By contrast, the gospel and the whole of God’s Word offer a defining picture of what a real, satiated life looks like.
Each of Satan’s temptations called into question God’s ability to provide and his sovereign ability to protect. Jesus understood that God is good and that he is enough so Jesus did not give in to temptation. But we struggle to believe those things deeply.
You and I are not tempted with something that we have no need for. We are tempted with things that we sense are a great need – what will either literally or figuratively fill us.
An intentional period of fasting then is purposely entering a wilderness - a digital wilderness for us - and into a time where one “detaches” in order to “attach” to God. Picture it like this: the physical giving up of something (“detaching”) severs the cord between your heart and that thing that might be ruling over you.
Fasting is commonly done by going without food. For this Lent season, you have been asked to fast from media in some way instead. In the absence of food (or in our case, media), we understand what, or who, truly fills our emptiness. It’s not until we get to the end of our resources that we really understand this.
