Baked turkey and sage dressing. Ham with clove sauce. Mountains of mashed potatoes, gallons of gravy, vegetables seasoned to perfection, hot buttered rolls, sweet tea. And that’s just the main course. For dessert, every variety of pie known to mankind—pumpkin, sweet potato, peanut butter, chocolate, pecan, chocolate pecan, apple, cherry, blueberry, blackberry cobbler, peach, peach cobbler, mincemeat, lemon meringue, cream—and the cakes…pound, chocolate, spice, marmalade, angel food, yellow. Followed by candies, fudge, truffles, mints, jelly beans, candy corn. Washed down with eggnog or punch, with coffee or Coke.
I defy anyone to keep an accurate count of their calorie intake between Thanksgiving and New Year’s…there’s just too much variety this time of year, too much richness, too many yellowed and tattered heirloom recipe cards pulled from between the pages of favorite cookbooks. This is the time of year that we most easily excuse and justify excess—it’s the holidays! We’re celebrating! Care for more whipped cream on that slice?
And that’s just the food. This is also, historically, in our nation anyway, the biggest buying season, the max-out-every-credit-card-season, the I’ve-got-to-buy-her-something-season. Would it be Scrooge-like to interrupt the festivities with a quiet call to…moderation? Even (gasp) discipline?
The season of Advent does indeed celebrate the coming of Jesus, the Christ child, but I wonder if we might better celebrate his birth by obedience to the teachings he delivered later in life. Mightn’t it be a novel approach to the holiday season of So Much to consciously, perhaps even painfully, do without?
It sounds almost sacrilegious. Easter is the season of sacrifice—Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice on the cross of Calvary—not Christmas. But what if we entered this time of year symbolically emptying ourselves? Cutting back, not just in one area, but in every area.
Because Jesus spoke directly to eating, that’s a good place to start: “My disciples will fast” (Matthew 9:15). Jesus said those words, those clear and emphatic words. In the midst of all the wonderfully aromatic kitchens, would he really dare say them to us? Now? Doesn’t he know it’s Christmas!!
“My disciples will fast.”
After the first of the year—that’s a better time to start. My blood sugar won’t let me. I get headaches. It would disrupt the household. I have to eat with the pills I take. That was for the disciples back then. If I fasted, I’d struggle with pride. I don’t want to be hyperspiritual. That’s just a little too charismatic, if you ask me. I’ve never fasted, and I’m a good Christian.
“My disciples will fast.”
Notice that Jesus didn’t say his disciples would fast one day a week, or three days a month, or on special days of the year. He didn’t say they would do it at the same time. He didn’t say it had to be from sundown to sundown, or from dinner tonight until breakfast the day after tomorrow. He didn’t say fasting is only effective if it lasts 3 days, or 7, or 40. He just said that his disciples will do it.
We usually think of fasting as “not” doing something, specifically, not eating. Jesus didn’t say, however, that his disciples “won’t eat.” Fasting is an active discipline, requiring the use of willpower, self-control, dependence on God—all good things to develop, good things that when acquired in sufficient measures, spill over into other areas of our lives.
Which begs the question…begs two questions, actually: Do you consider yourself to be a disciple? And if so, when will you be fasting next?
I submit that setting aside even one day during this season will help us maintain our perspective, help us focus on Christ, rather than Christmas. Help us empty ourselves a little more of self, that he may fill us anew with his Spirit. By giving ourselves even a brief respite from all the excess through a fast, we might even enjoy it more when we do sit down to a feast. Just a thought…
Permission to reprint with acknowledgement of source.
ellenofgillette1@aol.com
I defy anyone to keep an accurate count of their calorie intake between Thanksgiving and New Year’s…there’s just too much variety this time of year, too much richness, too many yellowed and tattered heirloom recipe cards pulled from between the pages of favorite cookbooks. This is the time of year that we most easily excuse and justify excess—it’s the holidays! We’re celebrating! Care for more whipped cream on that slice?
And that’s just the food. This is also, historically, in our nation anyway, the biggest buying season, the max-out-every-credit-card-season, the I’ve-got-to-buy-her-something-season. Would it be Scrooge-like to interrupt the festivities with a quiet call to…moderation? Even (gasp) discipline?
The season of Advent does indeed celebrate the coming of Jesus, the Christ child, but I wonder if we might better celebrate his birth by obedience to the teachings he delivered later in life. Mightn’t it be a novel approach to the holiday season of So Much to consciously, perhaps even painfully, do without?
It sounds almost sacrilegious. Easter is the season of sacrifice—Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice on the cross of Calvary—not Christmas. But what if we entered this time of year symbolically emptying ourselves? Cutting back, not just in one area, but in every area.
Because Jesus spoke directly to eating, that’s a good place to start: “My disciples will fast” (Matthew 9:15). Jesus said those words, those clear and emphatic words. In the midst of all the wonderfully aromatic kitchens, would he really dare say them to us? Now? Doesn’t he know it’s Christmas!!
“My disciples will fast.”
After the first of the year—that’s a better time to start. My blood sugar won’t let me. I get headaches. It would disrupt the household. I have to eat with the pills I take. That was for the disciples back then. If I fasted, I’d struggle with pride. I don’t want to be hyperspiritual. That’s just a little too charismatic, if you ask me. I’ve never fasted, and I’m a good Christian.
“My disciples will fast.”
Notice that Jesus didn’t say his disciples would fast one day a week, or three days a month, or on special days of the year. He didn’t say they would do it at the same time. He didn’t say it had to be from sundown to sundown, or from dinner tonight until breakfast the day after tomorrow. He didn’t say fasting is only effective if it lasts 3 days, or 7, or 40. He just said that his disciples will do it.
We usually think of fasting as “not” doing something, specifically, not eating. Jesus didn’t say, however, that his disciples “won’t eat.” Fasting is an active discipline, requiring the use of willpower, self-control, dependence on God—all good things to develop, good things that when acquired in sufficient measures, spill over into other areas of our lives.
Which begs the question…begs two questions, actually: Do you consider yourself to be a disciple? And if so, when will you be fasting next?
I submit that setting aside even one day during this season will help us maintain our perspective, help us focus on Christ, rather than Christmas. Help us empty ourselves a little more of self, that he may fill us anew with his Spirit. By giving ourselves even a brief respite from all the excess through a fast, we might even enjoy it more when we do sit down to a feast. Just a thought…
Permission to reprint with acknowledgement of source.
ellenofgillette1@aol.com
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