No More Meat Until Easter: Why that is Good For Me

My wife took one of those social media challenges where you describe your husband. When asked my favorite food, she said: meat.

This is true and by “meat” she meant bacon or beef or salmon or any other meat product up to and including Spam.

I am not a medical doctor and I have never played one on television. As a result, I cannot say if fasting from meat for roughly fifty days will be good for me physically, but today is the last day of meat for me until Easter.

This is a very good thing.

I am privileged to live in a place and have a job where I can eat meat if I wish. Most of the world is not able to do so,  nor have most humans that have ever lived. It is easy to forget my power over my own diet, but now suddenly  my spiritual leaders are telling me what to do.

Our community came to a decision over centuries about what works when it comes to fasting and they are not asking for my particular input. I am free to “give up” other things for Lent, but to be part of my community (assuming I am in good health), this week I will give up meat, next week dairy, and for many days all fish, wine, and oil.

I am not in control of my eating and that is a good thing. This is not a diet because I am not deciding to go on it. This is not a social protest or a cause because I am not choosing. Authority is speaking, wisdom greater than self, and so for fifty days or so, I will not eat my favorite food group: meat.

More important, life is very jolly. I have a job I love, people who are a delight to work with, and a great family. Physical pleasures are sweet and my church never makes me feel guilt for enjoying the world God made.

Hurrah!

Yet, though everyone admits that it is much more important to be beautiful on the inside than the outside, to be good rather than just lucky, we can forget this so easily. Physical treats tend to be sweet right away and only show a down side later.

Bacon tastes delicious right from the smell, while the upside of Bible reading is much more subtle. I enjoy the communion of the faculty at the Richmond Arms, our pub of choice, but there is a mystic communion that is better.

At least I say this is true. However, the ease of bacon and beer can be deceptive. Fasting (Lenten fasting) will force me to experience a truth that can become a mere abstraction. Many a man claims that he cares more for soul beauty than physical beauty (and both are good), but then never gives a thought to the inner beauty of the women he chooses to date.

He is kidding himself and we all roll our eyes at his louche behavior.

Yet when it comes to food and drink, I might say that they are unimportant, but trust me: a few days from now I will know what my priorities had become. As one of our pastors said today: “You don’t have to look forward to fasting, but you have to do it. Why? To get the good that comes from fasting.”

I will have more time to give to prayer, more money to give to charity, and more discipline in my life. I will be part of a “we” that makes decisions and not just a me.

All good . . .