"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

 

It's Mardi Gras, and, if this isn't the theme of today it should be. Today is a day to indulge, to over indulge, to gorge yourself, to "get fat" on all of the "fatty" foods and behaviors that you probably shouldn't be partaking of, but will anyway because tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, you "die" to all of that, and begin a 40 day stretch of fasting from all of the things that you are indulging in today.

It is perhaps one of the most bizarre "religious" holidays/festivals. I put religious in quotes, because a lot of what happens on Mardi Gras today is not what originally happened. It's always been a day of feasting and gorging, but traditionally it was strictly on food, sugary, fatty foods, hence the "Fat" part of Fat Tuesday. Today, feasting and gorging on food is still a huge part, but so is gorging on virtually any and every other behavior you can think of. And then tomorrow, for the religious, you mark your forehead with ash in mourning over your sinful nature...

Here's a thought, and it's just a thought, but why indulge in this behavior in the first place? Christ set us free so that we could be free, not so that we could continually live in fear and slavery to our sin, either by mournfully focusing on our depravity or by indulgently reveling in it. We are free from all of that. Granted, there is a time an place to remember that without Christ we are nothing, but Christ did not die and rise again to "rub it in our face" that we are sinners, but rather to show His amazing power and love in our lives. There is also a time and place for Biblical fasting as a beneficial spiritual discipline, but if we are simply fasting from something because we are supposed to, over indulging in it up to the point of fasting, and counting down the days till we get it back, we are missing the point.

There are obviously things that Christ has commanded us to abstain from, but He doesn't call us to abstain from them for only a set period of time. We are to abstain because we have a changed life, a life that models and shines the glory of God. And there are times when we are called to fast from certain things, not necessarily because they are bad, but because God wants our focus to be on Him exclusively. Therefore the fasting should not be about what we are fasting from at all, if it is we are missing the point. The fasting is about God. It's never about what you are removing from your life, but rather about what you are adding. That's where I think so many people miss the point with Lent/Mardi Gras. You can't simply remove things from your life for a time, that doesn't cause change or really much of anything positive. It's all about what you add to your life.

So this Lent I encourage you to fast if God is calling you to fast, but more importantly, indulge...indulge in God, in the knowing of Him, in time with Him, in communication with Him, in the change that He makes in your life if you allow Him to.

BTW:
The phrase above actually comes from the Bible, two verses to be specific:    

Ecclesiastes 8:15

"So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun."

Isaiah 22:13

But look: joy and gladness, butchering of cattle, slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat, and drinking of wine—“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”