Isaiah 58:6-7. Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose
the bonds of injustice...to let the oppressed go free...Is it not to share your
bread with the hungry...?
Shortly after arriving at my first overseas post, square
in the middle of a Muslim country, at the advent of the month of Ramadan (when
Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for a lunar month), I found myself engaged in
the first of what would, over the course of a 20 plus year career with many
assignments in Islamic states, become a recurring conversation topic “So, are
you going to fast or not?” my colleague asked.
In an environment where the fast is all encompassing (not
even swallowing of one’s own saliva is allowed during the fast period among the devout) and where fasting is a
national, public endeavor, with business, banking and school hours adjusted to
accommodate the fast—one’s response is no small consideration.
This passage pulled me
back to that memory because my first response to that question so many years
ago was “Why?, Why would I?” Isaiah gets at that “why” in this passage. We tend
to think of fasting, or the other deprivations of Lent (and the additions too,
for that matter) in terms of personal challenge and in terms of personal growth
and change. This passage, and this portion in particular, reminds me that my
personal choices have larger impacts. The decisions I make, the things I choose
to do or not to do, have implications and ramifications beyond my “known”.
Isaiah invites me to think more broadly about “why” and “for what purpose.” I
invite you to do the same.
—Bea Covington
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