fasting

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Isaiah 58:6-7
 
These verses were read at the service for Ash Wednesday yesterday here at the college chapel, opening the season of Lent.  It is a time of the church year where we reflect on Jesus' sacrifice at the cross, often giving something up as a fast for the 40 days of Lent (excepting Sundays) as a reminder of the cost to Him to love us.  The priest yesterday challenged us to fast in ways like this passage from the prophet Isaiah - caring for the poor, giving of our possessions and time in costly ways, inviting the poor into our homes, etc. 
 
The last part of verse seven reminded me of my earlier post on beholding.  I was challenged again to consider whether I actually do these things.  Have I traveled half-way around the world to explore a calling to serve the poor cross-culturally (and hopefully in some small way to actually serve them) only to continue turning away from people caught in suffering and poverty when it feels like too much, too daunting, too endless of cycles?  In what ways do/can I work - now and in the future - to set the oppressed free, to break yokes?  Do I share my food with the poor when it is all I have or only when it's my left-overs taken home in a doggy bag?  Would I ever take the risk to invite a poor stranger into my home? 
 
How can I do these things in socially responsible, wise ways that yet still require faith in God to do them and so may continue to hold some risk, some cost, to myself?  I want to be willing to do something that costs something, want to be willing to do something that costs everything, out of love for God's children because of God's extravagant, unexpected, grace-filled love for me that cost Him everything.  So may this Lenten season be a time where I learn more about taking up a fast that is pleasing to God, when the desire to serve the poor extends its roots deep into my heart, and when I in increasing ways give up living for myself and feast more on living for God and for His Kingdom.