Isaac Hunter 2 The Ash Wednesday services are tomorrow at Summit. Our Communications Director, Kristy Henry (soon to be Kristy Lawley), asked me some question about Ash Wednesday, which I answered "here":http://summitconnect.org/blogs/summit-church. Feel free to read that if you want more details about the service. I want to talk about our observance of Lent and in particular, the practice of fasting. Lent is the season on the liturgical calendar that precedes Easter and has historically been used by the church to prepare for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. One of the common elements of Lenten “celebration” has been the practice of fasting. There is no biblical command to fast a certain amount of days or from a certain sort of thing. There are just examples of Godly people doing it, including but not limited to, God Himself in the person of Jesus. There are others from Esther to David and bunches more, but alluding to Jesus always settles it quickly. When we fast, we intentionally focus on God as the center. We strip away non-necessities on which we’ve become unconsciously dependent to lean into what is necessary. We take away things that often provide easy escapes so we can remember what it means to seek refuge. A fast does not have to be from food. It can be from anything that is a norm, or has become a normal part of your life that you intentionally remove for the purposes of concentrating more fully on God. If there are any things in your life that occupy a greater place in your schedule or your checkbook than they should, you may want to pray about fasting from that thing. Facebook, Myspace, TV? All legitimate fasting options... Here’s the one thing about this… if you don’t feel led to fast as you pray about fasting, don’t do it. Let God lead you. He will if you ask Him. 2009-02-24T11:23:25-05:00 102 Lent 2009-02-24T08:51:00-05:00 2009-02-24T11:27:05-05:00