Happy Easter (and the secret to Fasting)
Those were the first words that came out of my mouth as I woke up today.
“Happy Easter, Jesus.”
Wait. Jesus didn’t exactly have a happy Easter. Easter for him was the most traumatizing time in his life. Happy Easter doesn’t describe that day for him at all.
“(Remember) The Passion of the Christ.” were the words that the Spirit spoke to me in the morning.
Passionate living is the only true way of living. We cannot live apart from passion, or from desire. John Eldredge says that God gave us eyes that we might see, ears that we might hear, hearts that we might live.
Jesus says in John 10:10 that He has come to give us Life and life more abundantly. I think sometimes we don’t take His words seriously enough.
And Jesus truly led a life of passion. He knew his purpose from the start and set his face like a flint toward his call. Never once was he distracted or lost about what he was supposed to do here. His sense of mission and purpose was perfect.
If God wills us to live lives of passion, how come I only feel spiritual lethargy and weariness most of the time?
Most of our days are spent without that fiery burning passion that we see in Jesus, and sometimes we wonder why. We wonder how to find that passion that Jesus had in ourselves. Where is that passion?
Why isn’t something burning inside of me that causes me to act?
Let me offer an answer.
It is in you. The passion for life that you long to have, it is there.
But something happened along the way to.. sedate it. Sedation, that’s what most of us are facing. Like the addict who craves his daily dose of drugs because he cannot do without it, most of us have our daily dose of sedatives to cure the emptiness inside of us.
We are very hungry people. We are people who hunger and thirst after Life. I quote CS Lewis… From the great saints to the big sinners; they all have one thing in common. It’s hunger. They recognize their hunger and they will do anything in their power to fill it.
The only difference is how they choose to fill that hunger. While the great saint chooses to fill the void of emptiness by staying in the Presence of God, the big sinner chooses to walk into a brothel.
But of most of us, because we neither know how to fill that emptiness, nor will go and blatantly sin, we choose sedation. We allow ourselves small bits of pleasure for our hearts so that it can be momentarily satisfied, much like keeping a dog on a leash.
So most of us end up doing small little things that keep the hungering heart quiet. Eating a little more than usual maybe? Watching TV? Playing Starcraft? A bit of retail therapy? Just that little bit of pleasure to keep that aching heart sedated.
Modern society isn’t helping. With the amount of advertisements and the new things to do, all with the same subtle promise,”Do this and you will have Life. Buy me and you will be filled. If you own me, you will be happy.“
Look at the advertisements nowadays, all promising life, from MacDonald’s to the Banks to the Washing Detergent. All bringing in the theme of family wholeness and love. The subtle message is,” Buy me and your family will be happy.”. Even to the very best of us who resist such, we would buy into a lie or two.
Sedation is really denying our hearts its true thirst by giving it a poorer, more mediocre substitute.
Example: If I put a really nice drink, like Starbucks Ice Blended Green Tea Latte in front of you, and plain water. If we are mildly thirsty, most of us will pick the Ice Blended Green Tea Latte for many reasons.
But let’s say if you’ve been walking in the desert for a whole day and the same option gets presented to you: which one would you grab immediately? That’s right, WATER!!
In this small little example lies our secret to passion, and Jesus calls it Fasting! You see, when we fast, our heart’s true thirst becomes clearer to us.
The longer we deprive ourselves of something we think gives us life, the clearer we will be about what truly does (give us life). By depriving ourselves of the things we usually use to sedate our hearts, first we will experience withdrawal symptoms, deep emptiness, frustration, irritation … all the signs any addict will feel.
In that moment, normally, we do everything in can in our power to ‘cure’ the pain. Call friends? Watch TV? Play Computer Games? Shopping? Everything within our reach, we try to grasp.
But then, if we fast long enough, Transformation happens.
Our hearts suddenly recognize this fact: No, you don’t need this for Life. You can let go of it, and you’ll be okay. You don’t have to have ________ ( the girl, the car, the house, the money, the retail therapy, the computer games).
Our hearts find Rest in that moment. You alone are all sufficient, O God. You are my Soul’s Shelter, my true Provider. In You I live.You are more than enough for me.
2 sub-revelations came from this Revelation:
1. Don’t judge.
Everyone’s thirst is the same. What defines us as great sinners or saints is simply what we choose to do with the thirst. Hence, don’t judge. While you may choose to deal with your hunger with less ‘sinful’ activities, other less ‘religious’ people may have chosen other ways to do it.
Remember how Jesus looked at the prostitutes and the other sinners. He accepted them. He accepts people who are true to their hunger. He didn’t accept them in their sins, He accepted them because He was the way out of their sins!
What Jesus cannot stand is people who choose to sedate their heart’s thirst, and then judge the people who are true to it. Case in point, the Pharisees. The people who do the ‘right’ thing all the time, but choose to deny their heart’s true desire.
When you meet a person all messed up, all over the place because of all the wrong choices the person has made, don’t look at the person with the eyes of judgement, but answer the person according to his/her thirst. The message you want to bring across is this: Your thirst for life is true. It is in me too. Come let me lead you to the Fountain of Life.
Remember what I mentioned in the previous post as well: God works with Desire. As long as you have a desire for something to be better in your life, God can use it. You just have to lift it up to God. What God cannot work with is a man fully sedated, desire-less and wanting nothing more in his/her life.
2. Fasting and Abstinence is the key to Passionate Living
I would really recommend this book The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen. It’s one of the best short books I have read that talks about the wisdom of the desert.
Remember that alot of the saints have their desert experiences before they were launched into ministry. John the Baptist had his, and Jesus had his.
I believe that the desert experience often brings us into another level because it clears out the ‘junk’ in our lives that are just simply taking our attention from the life of the spirit. By removing every single obstacle that sedates us, we become fully aware of Life, and there begin to truly live.
But, I mean, for a start, we don’t have to go out there 40 days 40 nights or what. It’s just a beginning of a self-awareness toward what might possibly be ‘sedating’ us from our thirst.
When you’re restless, what do you do? What do you grasp within your reach? Is it calling your friends? Facebook? Starcraft? Switching on the TV? Whatsapp? Finding something ‘productive’ to do?
It would be useful at that moment to just hold it right there, be still, close your eyes and pray. Instead of grasping something within your reach, we should, in that moment, lift up our desire to God. Rest in Him. That’s a momentary fast, and a moment closer to God than any moment.
Trust me, when the moment you’re grasping, quick, go run to prayer and cry out to Him, wrestle with Him, go argue it out with Him, scream at Him if you have to, I guarantee in that moment you’ll be closer to God than any other moment. In that moment, you become your most alive. =D
