Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16
“My rheumatism is not really bad. It only produces extreme footsoreness in the left foot, so that after 50 years, the right one is fresh as a daisy, the left keeps on whimpering, “Stop! Stop! We’ve been 25 miles already”. The real nuisance is that I am beginning to get horribly fat and this foot comes just when I ought to be slimming by long walks. I have had to give up potatoes, milk, and bread: perhaps having to fast for medical reasons is just punishment for not having fasted enough on higher grounds.”
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in “Dear Mary” letter dated 1 November 1954 in Letters to an American Lady, edited by Clyde S. Kilby (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967) 28.
I can relate. Perhaps you can too.
I turn 50 this year. Lewis was 50. I have had issues with my left foot since I herniated disk in my back on 19 October 2009. Lewis had issues with his left foot. I feel like I am gaining weight, because either my clothing is shrinking or its getting too tight. Lewis admits to becoming “horribly fat”.
Why share this excerpt from a personal letter of C.S. Lewis and be vulnerable about my own condition?
I feel like the practices linked to praying and giving tend to stick after Lent is over, but fasting, not so much. Maybe I am too much of a product of this consumeristic society. I don’t know. I am praying about what I will fast from this Lent. I would encourage you to join me. Ash Wednesday is days away.
More than that, let us ask God to us make fasting a regular practice after Lent so that we have margin in this busy, noisy world to be with the Father and feast on God’s generous offer of bread that satisfies and living water that quenches our thirst. Let’s discipline ourselves to fast on higher grounds.