“For all who do
evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not
be exposed.”
John 3:20
Ever notice that people don’t look happy
when you tell them you’re fasting? My
friend Mike was telling me the other day of how when he told his friend Joe
about fasting from movies during Lent, his friend treated him as if he was
crazy! Joe was acting as if he was
taking Mike’s decision to fast from movies as a personal assault. Mike and Joe are still good friends but Joe
just couldn’t understand Mike. We don’t
know what exactly caused Joe to act the way he did. But it makes you wonder if Joe, a good Christian,
has doubts about his consumption of movies.
Fasting causes others to wonder about you. It may even challenge them and their
practices and cause them to become upset.
Fasting or other spiritual disciplines
can act as a mirror both to others and us.
It can mirror back to us where the light of Jesus hasn’t been
shown. It may cause us some serious
distress as we consider stopping some deed that has taken priority in our
life. Fasting can also act as a mirror
to others as it challenges them too.
Mike never told Joe he had to fast from movies too but Joe acted like
it. When the light shines, the darkness
takes notice. After Mike and Joe parted
that day, Joe prayed about his decision to give up movies. He did decide that movies had taken front and
center in his life. They had crowded out
Jesus, so that he could not hear Jesus.
So he too decided to give movies up for Lent.
May the light of Christ shine through
you to the world. May Christ’s light
illuminate your life and dispel the darkness.
-Rev.
Matt Seaton
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