Yet there might be something valuable about pausing before we jump straight into Christmas. Indeed, I learned about this firsthand during Lent. One of the things I abstained from was tea, and I abstained from it six days each week. It might seem dramatic, but it's true: refraining from drinking tea during those days was a test of my faith. I learned, during Lent, that I tended to place a lot of comfort on having a cup of tea--to pick me up after a bad day, or to celebrate during a good day. While drinking tea is not a bad thing to do, it had become an obstacle for me. I relied upon it when I could have been in prayer, relying upon God.
Tea was not my kryptonite. But the comfort I derived from it was something that I needed to surrender to God. In Advent, we engage in fasting and abstinence as spiritual disciplines, in order to fully engage in the solemn and penitential season of Advent. As my priest said during Lent, we ought to think of fasting not only as abstaining from some things, but as "exercising our spiritual muscles" while we do that.
My Advent fast has been fruitful so far. I know this, not because the Lord has sent me a message in the clouds, or because I've suddenly become much stronger in my spiritual gifts, or because I feel better. I know my fast has been fruitful because I have been depending upon the Lord much more often than I usually do. When I am stripped of tea, I am stripped of my "pick me up," the treat that helps me stay awake and act more civilly than I feel like acting sometimes. As my dear roommate knows, the Jessica you get without tea is the Raw Jessica. There's no pretending. When I fast, I feel like I'm entering into a time where it's really just God and I--and I realize how grateful I am that He is with me.
Perhaps take some time to reflect on something you could abstain from for a few days each week of Advent. What do you turn to instead of the Lord?
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