I wasn’t planning on giving up quite this much for Lent

Recently a friend shared in our small group WhatsApp a picture of a cookie decorated with the words: “To be honest, I wasn’t planning on giving up quite this much for Lent.” That sums up a lot of how myself and others I’ve talked to are feeling. It’s almost as if we’re in a deeper and expanded season of Lent. It’s as if our whole country, our world almost, is being forced into a time of Lent.

Lent, for those unfamiliar, is one of the major seasons in the Christian Church Calendar. The focus is on Jesus’ journey towards his death on the cross. Lent is a season of preparation, preparing us for the reality of the resurrection joy of Easter.

A common practice during Lent is fasting. And right now, it’s as if our whole world is fasting. It is fasting from “business as usual”––the pace and the way of how things are normally done in every facet of our lives. For me, this season is captured in a way by how our most public and well-trafficked places are hauntingly empty.

Now, I think it’s important to understand what fasting is. In the traditional Christian understanding, fasting is not simply about deprivation, like depriving yourself of chocolate, meat, and/or social media. It’s not primarily about deprivation.

Fasting is not about giving up things, it’s about giving up yourself to God.

Fasting is not about less, but about more of the things that matter.

Therefore fasting is about focusing. Fasting from something lesser to help you focus on something greater. And it’s been over a month since Lent began. I could never have predicted that this is where our would would be at this point. And yet, I’m thankful for the Holy Spirit who had already led us into a season of fasting, of giving ourselves up to God, so that we could focus on the things that matter. So in this time, as we look ahead to Easter and even beyond it, perhaps we are invited to continue to fast/focus in some form.

• What do you need to give up in this season, so that you can better give yourself up to God? What do you need to fast from, and what do you need to focus on?

An example: fasting from screens and focusing on scripture

• I’m fasting from scrolling on screens and escaping through them. Which means I’ve had to pay attention to how much content I’m consuming, especially when it leads me to escape my present reality or numb my situation. Same with the news, I try to get my daily update once, and move on. Altogether, I try to limit my scrolling to 30-45 minutes a day, at a set time of the day.
• I’m focusing on scripture, as a way to focus on Jesus: through praying the Lord’s Prayer, reading the New Testament each morning, and meditating on a psalm a day.

Michael Yang is the campus pastor of Tapestry Nights

Photo Credit: Light traffic moves along a freeway in downtown Los Angeles on March 20. Mark J. Terrill/AP