Christians generally know that Jesus voluntarily spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness and faced staggering temptations and levels of physical and spiritual deprivation in ways we will never know. Some Christian traditions know that Lent is a period of 40 days and nights that we can use to look at how we respond to temptations and how we have created some spiritual deprivation for ourselves.
We live in a different kind of wilderness ~ it is overall a spiritual desert, a world of glittering excess and cultural demand, where life without the largest tv, best cable sports package, latest electronic gadget, or biggest walk-in closet is what we think would make life complete. In the midst of our everyday busy-ness, Fasting may mean more about fast-food than spiritual discipline. And while giving up sugary soda or cigarettes is a start for a healthier physical life, let's fast from more than just food or addictive substances and voluntarily, intentionally, and consciously give up and take on something new each day of this Lenten season, dedicate those acts to God for the benefit of our spiritual life and pray that, by the end, our spirits soar with the Christ who will rise and we, too, become a new creation [1 Corinthians 5:17].
Holy God, in this second day of Lent, help me to give up complaining about the weather, the traffic, or the price of eggs, and take on a donation of money, time, or goods, perhaps to a worthy charity that gives food, gloves, coats, or other items to those who are cold, hungry, and homeless in body or in mind. I will pray for the strength of spirit to avoid the constant distractions of acquiring unnecessary stuff and work to reduce less healthy habits, to discover the blessings of fewer earth-bound possessions and obsessions in this brief life to add more time with You. amen.
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