This Lenten season has been unlike anything I have ever experienced. It is technically my first as the “solo pastor” of the Wellington Campus Congregation, and I am quickly discovering it exhausting work. Most pastors and lay leaders reading this are probably shaking their heads in agreement right now. Lent is a time when the already hectic life of a church gets "kicked up a notch" as Emril Legasse would say. There are special services to plan, Lenten studies to lead, and a lot of spiritual prep that needs to occur to be ready to guide the flock into Easter. This last element is something I am especially learning about this year. My normal regime of self care has definitely not been enough, so I chose to engage a new spiritual practices this year by fasting from beer for lent.
I can guess what some of you are thinking: He is fasting? How mundane! Doesn’t every
Christian (especially a pastor!) do this sort of thing during Lent? And beer?
He fasts from beer??? Good God! Is beer that large a part of his life? This guy must be an alcoholic! So please let me clarify. I chose beer because
it is something I enjoy. There is nothing better than having a good ale with a
nice meal, or sitting down to enjoy nice weather with friends over a craft brew. For me, it is a way
to both increase my enjoyment of things (in a very moderate and responsible
manner of course!) and to occasionally come down after a stressful day or
meeting. So to lose this for 40 days was disconcerting, as I will address here in a
minute.
As for the fast itself, it is true
that Christians traditionally engage in this practice during Lent. But I was never one
of them. Lenten fasts are not a
requirement for Methodists. So I never chose to partake in them growing up. Moreover, I never took on any other seasonal practice. I never read the scriptures more than usual, never prayed if I didn’t
have to, never attended a special study, etc. In my mind, there was no need to do this. Jesus was going to come
on Easter regardless of what I did. The message would be the same, just as it
was year after year. So, I chose to skate through Lent just like I would any other time of
the year. Until this year in all honesty.
Last year, my first in full time Pastoral Ministry, I discovered that
it is not enough just to know that the new life of resurrection is coming.
The blanket message of Easter is not enough when you are exposed to it in the same way time after time.
Therefore, if you want it to feel unique and revitalizing in your life, you need to find the ways it specifically applies to you in this place and time. This is what spiritual practices help us with.
They help people reflect on their areas of brokenness and show us what God could address
and bring forth new life in if we chose to open up. Additionally, they can urge us physically us to seek out new ways to feel the Divine life at work around us. I feel I am generally pretty
good with the former practices involving self-examination (introverts unite!), so I
decided a tangible thing like a fast was the best way to go.
Fasting has certainly been a challenge for me.
Without beer I lost a minor coping mechanism, and a nice method of increasing
my enjoyment in social situations. In turn, I sought to fill this newly empty space in my life with God, which
was difficult at first. That’s right folks, even pastor’s struggle with this sort of
thing, but it improved when I finally figured out to the right approach. Eventually I learned to pray every
time I would feel tempted to have a beer (which was near unbearable on some
nights, especially after church council). It wouldn't be a long prayer, maybe 30
seconds or so, and I would ask God to take whatever stress was ailing me or to help me fully
engage in a social situation. If the urge for suds
was strong, I sometimes prayed multiple times. Or I would have to withdraw
from the immediate vicinity of the fridge to avoid temptation. It was hard, but
after the initial wave subsided, I would feel an odd, peaceful satisfaction
unlike anything I have ever felt before.
The “peace that passes understanding” as the Apostle Paul would put it. In
this, I knew God was at work and in future instances, that feeling provided me
strength to draw from. After 36 days, it has become strong source of
inner satisfaction. And although I am looking forward to having a nice beer with
Easter Dinner, I know I have found a much deeper way of coping or accentuating
my joy.
This was the goal of fasting all along, to
allow God to have a foothold within me that God has never had before. And
through Easter, it has become a way to promote new, life giving connections between myself and the Divine. This has
certainly happened for me during Lent, and I hope it has happened for those of you who have
engaged in other practices. The trick now is to make this last the next 8
months, the next year, the next decade and so on. We can’t give up the inroads
that God has made if we want to continue along the road to Christian Perfection. We are Methodists after all and on the Wesleyan Road to Sanctification, right?.
So, what rules and disciplines can
you instill to make your Lenten changes permanent? Or maybe you can start to think of what you will do next year? For me, my first move will not
always be to beer cooler, but to instead rely on God in prayer. So what will yours be? Let us ponder this over the next few
days as the new life of resurrection comes to us once again. And may the Risen
Christ bless all of us during this most sacred of times.
-Bryson
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