A Day Full of Surprises

As I mentioned earlier this week, one of the Lenten exercises in which I will be participating is a fast for the 24 hours prior to each Sunday's worship service, a fast that will be broken each week by sharing in the receiving of Communion with the church.  This was the first week of that exercise, and there were a few things that surprised me about the whole exercise.

First, I was surprised at how "easy" it was for me to go without food for the 24 hours.  I was expecting pangs of hunger and other discomfort but felt nothing of the sort.  In fact, as I joked to my wife this morning, it felt as though my body was saying, "Thank you for the break!"  Joking aside, it makes me wonder how long it would take me to feel the real pangs of hunger that are felt by all too many around our world - and it makes me grateful for the provision God has made for me and my family.

I was also surprised at how seriously this fast affected my worship.  Don't get me wrong, I was hopeful that it would be a tremendous experience, but somewhat skeptical about how going without food would make me anything other than distracted throughout church as I wondered and fantasized about lunch.  I could not have been more wrong.  I was focused in a way that I cannot remember experiencing for a long, long time.  I sang every word of every song and listened to every word of the sermon as if they alone were food.

The most poignant part of the service came as we sang, "This is my daily bread, this is my daily bread, your very word spoken to me."  I have sung that song probably hundreds of times in my life  but never like this.  For the first time, I got it.

Finally, I was shocked at how much I craved communion.  The whole service built towards sharing communion and the whole time I was eagerly thinking, "Is it time?  Is it time?"  I try very hard in my own spiritual life to ensure that communion never becomes mere ritual, just something to do...but sometimes it seems that way.  How awesome it was to experience communion with the kind of longing that I envision the early followers of Jesus experienced.

All in all, it was a great day of worship that culminated in a wonderful breaking of the fast with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew.  God is good.

jB