I decided this year to approach the Thanksgiving feast a little differently this year. The combination of significant changes at Oak Hills Church, some big changes in my life, and the lighter workload of the holiday week inspired me to spend the first three days of this week fasting.
This might sound crazy, but if you’ve never fasted, you don’t know what you are missing. By refraining from food for the sake of prayer and growing closer to God, you suddenly find yourself entrenched against a number of foes. Not only are you fighting hunger, but you must rearrange your life. Then there are the physical repercussions: achy muscles, head rushes, sore muscles and general weakness.
No matter how many times I fast, I am struck by the same lesson: I have no strength of my own, it all comes from God. When I don’t think I can go anymore, I ask God to give me the strength, and He always does.
In a very different way, feasting is a spiritual discipline. When God introduced feasts and sacrifices to the Israelites, he blew away the world’s religious systems by giving them the ability to celebrate with God. You don’t sacrifice to YHWH, you join him for dinner. Jesus reclaimed this in the last meal he ate with his disciples, and Christians practice this even today.
Appropriately, the family I joined for Thanksgiving opened their feast by taking the bread and the wine. Jesus’ main metaphor for his kingdom is a table. A group of people -- rich, poor, Jew, Greek -- eating dinner together with him. How could we not celebrate the things we ar thankful for without remembering Jesus is at the table with us?
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