“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

– C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

For those of you who grew up practicing fasting, you may think of the practice primarily as self-denial. I can relate. As a young boy, I grew up in a Jewish home celebrating Yom Kippur, a day of fasting that meant I could not enjoy my favorite snacks. When my mother transitioned my family to the Roman Catholic Church, it meant six weeks without candy or sweets. This experience left a sour taste in my mouth until I was challenged that the primary aim of fasting was not self-denial, but the aim was spiritual reformation.

As we prepare to engage in the Lenten season, the end we have in mind is not to suffer the loss of our desires, but rather to have our desires changed to more wonderful things. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, the purpose of Lenten fasting and preparation is to expose our desires as weak and to develop a longing and imagination for the holiday of resurrection life in God’s Kingdom.

My hope in writing this Lenten devotional alongside Pastor Raef is for you to journey through the Gospel of John with a growing longing for the coming Kingdom of Jesus, and to see those and to see those things that we have chosen to fast as mud pies in a slum, incomparable to the delight of the glory to come.