I'm not really into the whole lent thing...I have my reasons which I'm not going into here. But this year for the first time I'm giving something up... actually I'm giving up 3 things; chocolate, crisps and fizzydrinks. (I really don't eat much crisps anyway, but I know that in the absence of chocolate I would eat more.).
This is not for diet reasons...although I could lose a few stone, but I want to use these 40 days as a spiritual discipline. During the next 40 days, by removing these comfort foods from my life, I want to learn to comfort myself in the Lord more than I have been doing. I want to learn my soul to quieten itself, so that I can learn again to hear its longing after God, "As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." Ps 42:1
But the discipline is not ultimately about hearing the panting of the soul, it is more so about attuning my soul to listen. Listen to what? Listening to a song that is being sung over my life every day and every night. Psalm 42 goes on to speak to us, "By day the LORD commands his love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life."
This Lent is not about depriving myself, it is about learning again to nourish my soul in God. It is not about removing from my life foods that I enjoy, it is about feeding upon the One who gives me infinite joy.
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