Star from the Lizard Constellation Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
In his newsletter today, Timothy Isaiah Cho encourages us to see Lent as more than an individual “giving something up.” …”I think that that is only half of the picture that God gives us about the intention of fasting. Fasting is not just a deprivation of something for a time, but it is also a positive provision for the least of these.” Viewing fasting through the lens of Is. 58 “would create both spiritual transformation and deep impact to the community around them.” He commends us to Is. 58: 6, but go further and read the whole chapter! Here’s a portion:
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily….
Perhaps we can think of fasting as “giving up” something in order to “give to” someone.
