Fasting, Marathon Training for the Soul

Lent, I thought, was something you only did if you were Catholic.  Then, I learned that Lent is just fasting from something for 40 days. And ending the fast on the day we celebrate Christ's resurrection is so symbolic.  It's like taking the last steps of a marathon downhill onto a cool lawn.

Fast food and dessert I decided, were two indulgences I could cut for 40-odd days. I even started before the official Lent start date (no favorite cream cheese paczkis on Fat Tuesday).  I was flushed with moderate success for...10 days?

Then I agreed to go on an even stricter one-week cleanse with my aunt (one of those I've seen since grade school and had to try someday), and so I ate some dessert and fast food because I needed to prepare for the strict week! Oh the logic of the loophole! 

So I'm only a few days into Lent and I've failed. But I still like Lent because fasting strengthens soul-muscle, giving more room for the power of God to work.  Depriving ourselves of small things like food and drink (not so small sometimes) build the muscles for running longer marathons of the soul, for allowing God to power us up the last hills when our leg muscles feel like hamburger.

Muscles like:

• Focus. Fasting puts body, mind, and spirit are on the same page.
• Proper perspective. Fasting brings to mind there will always be hunger and pain. Fasting captures that hunger and invites us to give it to God.
• Spiritual eyesight.  Fasting chips away at barriers to relationship with God. 
• Persistence in temptation. Fasting trains for other battles.

Jesus, the master finisher (who holds all the world records in this sort of thing) is the one who powers our spiritual exercise. His power gets a chance to work when we take the time to train.

At a marathon, the finishers don't necessarily have perfect training histories. But they have training histories.

And from the field of writing, the same truth: I try to write a certain amount each day, five days a week.  A rule sometimes broken is better than no rule. -Herman Wouk

Yes, better to be following a rule and sometimes breaking it than not trying at all. So, leaving those "desserts which are behind and reaching forward"...