For Lent, I am giving up meat, and listening to the radio. (MP3 is ok. I’m just a talk radio junkie – XM style)
I went to Clocked today for lunch. It’s just my favorite burger place in Athens. “Hey, wait a minute! I thought you gave up meat for Lent?!?” That’s right, I did. But, hey, this is Athens. Can’t you get vegetarian practically anywhere here? As a matter of fact, I remembered a conversation I had a few years ago with the owner of Clocked. He and his wife started the restaurant because they were both vegetarians and couldn’t find a good veggie burger anywhere in town, so they started Clocked in order to provide one. And they did. You can put their black bean patty on any of their burger choices (which includes a peanut butter bacon burger that ROCKS). So I got the veggie burger.
But, you see, I think about it at every meal, that is, ‘hey, I’m not eating meat.’ I wonder what I’m going to get, where I’m going to get it, etc. So the fasting from meat reminds me, at least at every meal, that Jesus denied himself ‘life’ and many worthwhile things of life, so that I could have life. And maybe by denying myself a little meat, I train myself not to be overly self indulgent, I practice a little self denial which makes me endure just a little suffering. They say that people who fast regularly are much more able to endure when real suffering comes their way. They’re just a little more accustomed to knowing how to make it through something that is hard or uncomfortable.
Then there’s the giving up the radio thing. One time, I drove an old Plymouth Horizon (which was it’s own form of suffering). The radio worked when it felt like it. It would play perfectly for months on end. Then one day it wouldn’t. The next day it would. It would suddenly come on – suddenly stop. This went on for years. I could never see a pattern, like it failed in the cold, worked in the warmth – I would hit the dash, turn it off and on, really everything. Even so, it worked most of the time.
Then one day I had the thought (wonder where that came from?) “When the radio isn’t on, it’s a good time to pray and listen for the voice of God.” “Hey” I said in my spiritual voice, “I’ll make a deal with you, God. When the radio doesn’t work, instead of thinking of whatever, I’ll pray.”
. . . . . . . that radio never came on again.
So, for me to give up talk radio in the car (and sometimes I’m on the road hours at a time) I know it’s my attempt to make a quiet environment better suited for hearing the voice of God. And, again, by making the commitment, it’s something that I think of every time I get in the car. Thinking about it draws my attention to God’s presence.
That’s how fasting works. It catches our attention when, otherwise, we would just coast along.
You can still join in, you know. I challenge anyone to try giving something up for Lent, and tell me at the end that you didn’t grow in your faith somehow.
Catch a Wave 
