Sabbath Fast

Lenten Reflection: Soul Fast

A poem by Jo Ann Staebler from a 14-year old issue of Alive Now. We'll be meditating on this tonight:

In the deep stillness of prayer
my soul fasts.
Fasting,
at its heart,
is turing away from what keeps me from God.
Two things I must leave:
the walls I build around the space
that was made to be God's dwelling.
the absurdities I keep in that space,
so jealously hoarded.

Taking down the wall
that protects the false self I have been building all these years
risking exposure
emptiness
loneliness.
The fast is silence,
ocean-deep and prolonged.

Shard by shard,
the wall begins to fall.
Inch by inch,
the space clears, 
and Love lights the shadows.

I come unprotected,
and learn that God alone is safety.
I come unaccompanied,
and find that Christ alone is Friend.
I come me hungry,
and receive the only food that satisfies.

In letting go is abundance.
In emptying I am filled.
This is not denial, but freedom.

Fast is feast.