Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, according the the church calendar, ringing in a new liturgical season of preparing for Easter, the blessed celebration of Christ’s resurrection. Before the reformation the church demanded fasting from meat during the workdays from now to Easter but for those further from High Church expressions we are less likely to have experience with fasting of any sort.

Should we fast? What can we fast? What can I fill my life with in the absence of something? All good questions and those that often must be answered by the individual.

As we prepare for the grand celebration Easter is meant to be, it may be appropriate to restrict food or other things to set our desires on Christ. And it may also be, actually it is always appropriate that we feast on the glory of the gospel in preparation of Easter and all of life.

To that end Scott Hubbard has some great suggestions on DesiringGod.org. Here is some of what he says:

Whichever side you land on, consider the coming weeks as an opportunity to maximize your Easter gladness. You don’t need to call it “Lent.” You don’t even need to fast over and above your normal practice. You just need to devote yourself to a forty-day soul feast.
If we want to make the most of this annual opportunity, we’ll do more than just give something up. We’ll silence ourselves before the Sovereign who became a servant. We’ll fasten our eyes upon him as he teaches and heals and smiles and weeps — the only upright man in a world of cracked and curved impostors. We’ll stand in awe as we hear him plead in Gethsemane. We’ll marvel as he moves from the garden to the cross, silent as a sheep going to the slaughter. We’ll adore him as he lets the nails pierce his sinless skin until it is finished.
And then, we’ll put our ears to the ground and listen for the tremors of his rising.

Check out more from Scott here.

So whichever way you lean, fasting or not, let’s be feasting on Jesus as we make the journey toward Easter.