According to the Christian calendar, we are now entering Lent, a season of self-reflection and humility. Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. I happen to believe Easter is a more deeply profound celebration when fronted with the reality of our sin and mortality. For many, this season of self-reflection is joined by self-sacrifice. “ What are you giving up for Lent? ” is what we ask. Answers range from superfluous guilty pleasures ( I’m giving up hot cocoa ) to serious acts of self-deprivation ( I’m literally fasting from all food for the next 40 days just like Jesus in the wilderness ). Nothing in scripture commands us to do this. The precedents we inherited do not link fasting with personal piety. Rather, in many Medieval eras, fasting was tied more to the reality that by the end of winter, stores of food were dwindling down significantly in poor and rural communities. Fasting was what you had to do to survive long enough for Spring to arrive and so ...