Fasting to Feasting

Today's reflection (with a change in writer) speaks of feasting and fasting, and how this does not just refer to food.  So today's reflection on the reflection will be an exercise.

Imagine, if you would, a straight line.  At one end is fasting and at the other end is feasting.  For the feasting end, remember the time in your life when you were at a real high, a time when you would consider it a celebration (possibly a wedding, a birth, winning the lottery, buying a house, etc.)  Not simply being happy, but being ecstatic about whatever event it is.  For the fasting end, remember a time when you were at your lowest, not just sad, but devastated at the loss of ... a person, a job, a pet, a child.

Somewhere between these two extremes, we live our lives, knowing that too many days like the Feasting high will likely leave us bankrupt, exhausted from nerves and anticipation; and too many days like the Fasting low will leave us depressed beyond measure, unable to see the possibility of even a normal day when we can smile and appreciate the simple fact of being alive.

Our sister church, St. Luke's in Libby today hosted the first "Kid's Kitchen", to provide a hot meal and backpacks for additional meals over a weekend for needy and homeless children.  These are kids who know what it is to hunger - not just for food, although that is a very important need to fill, but for fellowship, belonging, a place where they can be themselves.  They're too far along the fasting side of the line, and many in our community and in Libby stepped up to help move them back along the line.  About 30 people came today - far more volunteers than kids in need, as yet.  Which shows us that many people have a need to nurture, to care for our community members and particularly the minors.  For a first time in a small town, it's a great start.  And the plan is to continue doing it, every week.

In here is the concept that brings us Lent.  We want to deprive ourselves of something so that we are able to appreciate what we have.  We want to develop good habits to make what we have that much better.  And we want to help others to find their own balance.