...do you give up something else? That's what I did. I gave up the same thing I have given up for three years...and I didn't MISS it. So I tagged onto DadBob's fast item. It's kinda pointless to fast from, oh, say, okra. Know what I mean?
The *reason* I fast is to use the habit from which I am fasting as a tool to turn my mind to remember what Christ has done for me. To remind myself to think on Him. So, when I think, "Gee, wonder what (enter name of random talk show host) is yakking about now?", I then think, "Oh. Not talk show." Then, I think, "Jesus, thank you for thinking on me as you did." And sometimes I actually start praying. And even if I don't, I have noticed that the silence is better than the yakking radio, as far as peace goes.
I remember hearing Richard Foster on the radio a few years ago. The interviewer asked him how he found so much time to pray, to be in silence. Foster said, "Well, for one thing, I don't listen to the radio."
Well, if I don't ever *think* about the talk show or the discussion board or the cup of coffee or glass of wine or whatever it is I gave up, I don't have a very effective tool to turn my mind. So I latched on with DadBob and we're fasting together. It's not "about" breaking a habit, and I can't really call what I experience in the process "suffering". But I have loved the annual turning of my mind. I think, sometimes, that I need at least one more "Lent" a year.
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