We are now in Lent. Lent is a season of fasting, repentance, moderation, and spiritual discipline. Many Christians use the season of Lent as a time to give up certain aspects of life. At the start of this week, I saw the flowers and greenery removed from Langham church to make the decoration simpler. I am sure many of you made pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, following the old practice of using up rich ingredients in the cupboards before Lent when we might abstain from these ingredients. Some of you might have chosen to give up a specific food item or activity for Lent. I know my mum will be giving up chocolate for Lent, as she does every year. I have given up using the social media app YouTube (so please send me any interesting videos AFTER Lent). 

But why do we fast from these various foods or habits. After all, Jesus never instructed us to keep a Lenten fast. So why do we do it? The forty day fast of Lent corresponds to Jesus’ fast in the desert where he was tempted by Satan. Early Christians would mark a forty day fast in the build-up to Easter, and it is a practice that we have continued to this day. Lent is a season of preparation for Easter, and the fasting of Lent helps turn our hearts to Jesus through repentance and reflection. 

Think of a time when you have gone without food. Maybe you have been out all day. You may have gone for a day in the forest where there are no shops or restaurants, or you might have left the house without your wallet and are unable to buy food (this used to be a real thing, kids. Honest). Or maybe you have intentionally chosen to fast from food. We know that when we do not eat for a long time, we become hungry, and the longer we wait for food, the hungrier we become. You find that all you can do is think of food, and there is nothing worse when you are hungry than to think of food out of reach. It feels torturous. But when you finally get to the dinner table and savour that first bite of food after several hours, it feels like liquid gold as the overwhelming sensation of tastes and flavours hit your mouth. Food has never tasted so good! 😋The act of fasting from food, made us appreciate and savour food all the more when we next taste it. 

Fasting can also help us appreciate other things whilst we are focussing our energy and attention in different ways. I have a friend who used to be a marine. He told me that once when he spent several weeks in a dense jungle, where he couldn’t see more than 10m ahead of him, he found that his other senses heightened. He described to me being able to smell things hundreds of metres away and how his sense of hearing became ultra-sensitive and alert. His body learnt to adapt to its lack of sight by heightening the other senses and improving their focus to cope with being in that environment. 

Fasting helps us appreciate the value of things that we have and gives us a renewed zeal for them. We remember the things we have failed to recognise and come to Christ in repentance. But fasting also allows us to use skills, habits, time and energy that we didn’t realise we had. We gain an appreciation of things we had never even realised. Fasting in Lent can help us realise the value of what we have, the gifts we have been given by God. It reminds us of how Christ suffered and gave up everything for us in his death on the cross. It renews for us the beauty of the cross and the power and grace of Jesus’ resurrection. And in Lent, through saying ‘no’ to some things, we find ourselves saying ‘yes’ to Jesus in other ways. We say ‘yes, we will put away distractions of food, technology and other things so that we can spend more time in prayer.’ We say ‘yes, we will remember the cost of giving things up, and remember those who go without. We will let this knowledge change us to help us live for Jesus and his kingdom.’ 

Many Christians in Lent choose to take up something in addition or instead of giving something up. This could be a time of prayer or Bible reading. It could be volunteering at the foodbank for an hour a week. It could be phoning someone every day who needs a friend. Whatever we give up or take up, each of these things helps us discover new things about life and ourselves; we discover new things about Jesus in our lives, who Jesus is and what he is saying to us. I pray this Lent that your Lenten practices will draw you in new ways and renewed ways of seeing Jesus, who he is and what he has done for us.