It has become my habit on Good Friday...

To fast from sun up to sun down. I do not practice the discipline of fasting with any more regularity than Good Friday. My large belly might say I need to but I don’t. I began this a few years ago to honor the sacrifice Jesus made for me. It seemed fitting that I should give up food that sustains life since Jesus gave up his life to sustain me. So I drink water but eat nothing. Health wise, I can do this so I do. Little did I know what was in store for me on the Good Friday!

I have found it is easier to fast and not think about it by being busy. I had an appointment with my parents that morning that would be most of the morning. All of that went well it is what follows that became difficult. You see my folks wanted to go to a restaurant to eat. I was preparing myself to watch them eat and drink my water and chew the ice. However, I did not prepare for the smell of food being cooked while we waited. It was going to be a long wait, twenty to twenty-five minutes the hostess said. They decided that was too long and we left. Whew that was close. That food smelled good.

 

I had a few errands to run before we went home. I had in my mind the toughest stop would be the Publix store. Going into a grocery store hungry is not a good move anytime but while you are fasting is definitely not smart. However I had to go there to get a specific item.  I made it, in and out without a food fragrance hitting my hungry nostrils. The next stop was going to be easier or so I thought the local Sam’s Club to pick up plates, cups and juice. Not too tough or so I thought. It was sample day. Of all the days to be sample day why Good Friday? It seemed to me that at the end of every isle there was a cooking station with samples.

 

Most of my sample day experiences have not been wonderful. On one such day a pastor (not anyone still living) took me to lunch. Guess where we went? A grocery store on sample day, yep that was lunch to him and that day to me. So my experiences have been less than stellar. Other times the samples were not fit to eat much less buy. I mean really put your best food forward with your sample. On this day could I be so lucky? The answer is NO! This day of all days, the day I choose to not eat there were wonderful samples. I turned one corner and there he was cutting up the chicken core don blue in the largest sample sizes I have ever seen. I love that stuff. I could stand there and eat lunch NO, not on this day get me out of here!

 

My next stop was Wal-Mart. After the beating at Sam’s this was a snap. I did not even have to go through groceries for the item I was looking for only to discover I did not need it as my wife had gotten the item at another place. By now it was 1:30. I was hungry but my errands were over. My experience was not.

 

As I drove home thinking about the day’s events it hit me, I had been faced with the temptation to eat on the day I had chosen to not to eat. It was hard, very hard to stick with my choice. Jesus faced a similar decision on this Good Friday. He could have called angels to fight his battle, he could have come down from the cross but no, he chose to be arrested, tried, convicted and crucified, the just for the unjust. It must have been so hard to endure so much for me. Here I was enduring a little hunger for him. It just does not seem the same. It isn’t!

 

With those thoughts it was easier to be a little hungry on Good Friday this year!                    

In HIS Service and Yours,
The Rev