Giving Up Fasting for Lent!

I’m giving up fasting for Lent. Okay, I’m just kidding, but I am kind of serious. It’s only been a few weeks now since I’ve been born again, again. I have an entirely new understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ. I have renounced sin management in favor of something I am calling “Real Life.”

In my real life I realize that I am not capable of managing my sinful nature. I am completely lacking in “will power.” On my own, I can’t do much. However, in my real life I am walking in and with the Spirit of God, living in an awareness of the Spirit’s presence. I am free from religious performance, duty and ritual!

If I am fasting from anything, it is giving up on trying to be a good person! This activity hasn’t worked out very well for me over the years. I have decided I would rather just BE a person. Rather than denying the parts of my personality that others may find prickly and unacceptable, I am embracing the way that God has made me. The self that I am denying daily is the self that is guilty, ashamed and somehow less than. The self I am embracing is the self that is a child of God, loved and loving!

If I am wearing ashes on my forehead, they are the ashes of the death of my old self and they are there for only a fleeting moment as they are washed by the baptism of the Spirit!