Today is Ash Wednesday and we begin the Lenten Season.

One of the spiritual disciplines many Christians engage in during this season is fasting.

• Some fast from meats, chocolates, sweets, coffee, etc.
• Others add exercise, Bible reading, a spiritual discipline, a virtue.

After Ash Wednesday service, one of the things my wife and kids will want to know is what I am giving up for lent.

If you have been thinking about what to fast…don’t. In fact. Don’t fast.

Instead do whatever will help you to reflect on Jesus more during this season of Lent. You could be fasting from all kinds of stuff and miss the whole thing – Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. It’s not about fasting from, or adding to…it’s about doing whatever will help you reflect, think, remember Jesus more.

The point of Lent is not fasting, but Jesus.

So if fasting from chocolates will help you think of Jesus more, by all means, fast from chocolates. If exercise, being kind, fasting, etc. helps you reflect more on Jesus, please do that.

But if you’re going to fast from chocolate, meat, or coffee for the sake of fasting…what’s the point?

Whatever you do during the season of Lent, my prayer is that you are drawn more intimately to the beauty and majesty and the incredible sacrificial love of Jesus.

Disciple.

The word the New Testament uses most often to describe the church’s relationship to Jesus is disciple.

Not apostle. Not Christian. Not prophet. Not servant. No other word comes close to “disciple”.

Disciple: a follower, a student, a learner.

Our main job as Christians is to follow, learn from, and be a student of Jesus Christ. Seems obvious, right?

• I know what Jesus said, but what I believe about sexuality is…
• I know what Jesus said, but what I think about money is…
• I know what Jesus said, but what I feel about ______ is…

Is it any wonder that the main word the New Testament uses to describe our relationship to Jesus is “disciple”?

If it were only so obvious.

A man accustomed to a mainline traditional worship went to a contemporary worship service on Sunday. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.

“Well,” he said, “it was interesting. They did something different. They sang praise songs instead of hymns.”

“Praise songs?” asked his wife. “What are those?”

“Oh, they’re okay, I guess. They’re sort of like hymns, only different,” said the man.

“What’s the difference?” asked his wife.

He replied, “Well, it’s like this. If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ that would be a hymn. Suppose, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

‘Martha, Martha, Martha, oh, Martha, Martha, Martha
The cows, the big cows, the brown cows,
the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows,
the cows, cows, cows are in the corn,
are in the corn, are in the corn,
the corn, corn, corn.’

Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing five or six times that would be a praise song.

As luck would have it, the same Sunday a young woman accustomed to contemporary worship services attended a mainline traditional worship service. She came home and her husband asked her how it was.

“Well,” she said, “it was interesting. They did something different, however. They sang hymns instead of praise songs.”

“Hymns?” asked her husband. “What are those?”

“Oh, they’re okay, I guess. They’re sort of like regular songs, only different,” said the woman.

“What’s the difference?” asked her husband.

She replied, “Well, it’s like this. If I were to say to you, ‘Ernest, the cows are in the corn,’ that would be a regular song. Suppose, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

‘Oh Ernest, dear Ernest, now hear thou my cry;
Incline thine ear to the words of my mouth.
Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by
To the righteous, immutable glorious truth.

For the way of the animals who can explain?
There is in their heads no shadow of sense!
Hearken they not in God’s sun nor his rain.
Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.

Yea, those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight
Broke free from the shackles, their warm pens eschewed.
They, goaded by minions of darkness and night,
They all my mild Chiliwack sweet corn have chewed.

So look to that bright shining day by and by
Where all the corruption of earth are reborn,
Where no vicious animal makes my would cry
And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.’

Then, if I were to sing only verse one, three, and four, and if I were to do a key change on the last verse, that would be a hymn!

The author chooses to remain anonymous for the author has offended everyone.