Lent

The Christian calendar, if you weren’t aware, has a 40-day period leading up to Easter. Lent is from the Latin for “spring.” But most of us think of Lent as a time of restraint, of giving up something. Maybe you give up chocolate for Lent, or social media. Maybe it’s meat and fish. Lent is really about self-control. “Self-control is making a decision against yourself,” Mark Batterson once wrote. And I think that hits the nail right on the head.

When I think of Lent, I think of fasting. And when I think of fasting, I think of the story in the first half of Matthew 4. We find Jesus, right after his baptism. Right after the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. Right after the heavens parted and God called out, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased!”

Right after that momentous occasion, he is sent out into the wilderness, the desert, for 40 days. No food. A month and a half-long fast.

I have to confess, fasting is tough for me. I read that story and I automatically get hungry. It can be right after lunch, I read Matthew 4 and I think, “Man, I could go for a taco right about now. And you know what, I better add some nachos just to be safe.”

Why is saying no to ourselves so hard? Why is it so tough to make a decision against ourselves that we know will help us? Here’s one idea. Whenever we fast, we feel vulnerable. We are vulnerable to hunger, to anger, to being tired. And when we are vulnerable, we are also vulnerable to making mistakes, missing the mark. We are vulnerable to sin.

And here’s the strange part about that. Whenever we deny ourselves in a fast, we are actually drawn closer to God. When we say no to ourselves, we are able to say yes to him. When we make those decisions against ourselves, we are making decisions in favor of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was fasting for forty days straight. And then here comes the devil. Satan sits down next to him and says, “Some bread would be nice, wouldn’t it? Go ahead and tell those stones to turn into a nice hot loaf and dig in.” Jesus was tempted by baked goods. As an Italian, I can relate. I understand that temptation of bread! But Jesus said no. Not because he was fully God and fully man. But because he allowed his fast to teach him self-control. And he used that moment as a pause. He stopped, thought about his mission, his father, his future, and said no to temptation.

That’s what self-control does. It puts God in control. It allows us to pause and think it through. “Will this please God?” “How will this affect those who are close to me?” “How will I feel when it’s all over?” Self-control means that we pause, think it through, and then act in a way that pleases God and protects ourselves.

Self-control can feel a bit stuffy. “Extra cheese!” That’s a bit more exciting, isn’t it? Or how about, “Why not?” That’s another good phrase to get us under the door of temptation. “Who will it hurt?” Another great way to deflect blame and responsibility.

But self-control, in all its stuffiness, is the one thing that can help us maintain spiritual growth in our lives. It allows us to make the right decision. It puts God in the driver’s seat and we can always trust him to take us right where we need to go. And at the end, he brings us to a place that is so much better than “extra cheese!” It’s a land of infinite promise, over and above immediate gratification.