"Change Management" Fasting

In the last couple of decades, we saw the rise of "Change Management" concept in businesses. 

It's common now that all big projects include an essential branch of change management up to assigning an official "Change Manager" role during the project. You might have read lots of books about it and I recommend to read the funny fable of "Who moved my Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson. One thing is clear: Change Management has a key goal of steering, and getting the organization to accept the change and most of all, challenge a pre-defined human thinking that change is all about loss and letting go of your comfort zone. It conveys that it is not about what you will lose but rather what you will gain after this process of change, a period after which you rise in a much better shape, efficiency gained, better equipped and highly ready to reach your organization's objectives. It is the about the "NOW" and "THEN"...The vision...It is not what you let go of, it is what you will gain!

How many times I have approached fasting and lent in this same loss focused mentality! When starts this time of fasting and preparation leading to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, we all start talking about what will we let go of, be it food, habits, actions, lifestyle, etc. We think of lack rather than abundance, we think of stop rather than start! While this simple earthly business concept of Change management opened my eye to a new perspective: It is about the Now and THEN...It is a change process we go through Now to Then Grow different..changed and Stronger in Him. A process of gaining new relation with HIM, we deprive ourselves to receive the abundance of His Love to take the change further...to the world around us! It is simple and Clear in what the Holy Spirit wrote through Prophet Isaiah-most beautiful passage on Fasting:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? THEN your LIGHT will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; THEN your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. THEN you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, THEN your LIGHT will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (Isaiah 58:6-10 NIV)

أليس هذا صَوْمًا أختارُهُ: حَلَّ قُيودِ الشَّرِّ. فكَّ عُقَدِ النّيرِ، وإطلاقَ المَسحوقينَ أحرارًا، وقَطعَ كُلِّ نيرٍ. أليس أنْ تكسِرَ للجائعِ خُبزَكَ، وأنْ تُدخِلَ المَساكينَ التّائهينَ إلَى بَيتِكَ؟ إذا رأيتَ عُريانًا أنْ تكسوهُ، وأنْ لا تتَغاضَى عن لَحمِكَ. «حينَئذٍ يَنفَجِرُ مِثلَ الصُّبحِ نورُكَ، وتَنبُتُ صِحَّتُكَ سريعًا، ويَسيرُ برُّكَ أمامَكَ، ومَجدُ الرَّبِّ يَجمَعُ ساقَتَكَ. حينَئذٍ تدعو فيُجيبُ الرَّبُّ. تستَغيثُ فيقولُ: هأنَذا. إنْ نَزَعتَ مِنْ وسَطِكَ النّيرَ والإيماءَ بالأصبُعِ وكلامَ الإثمِ وأنفَقتَ نَفسَكَ للجائعِ، وأشبَعتَ النَّفسَ الذَّليلَةَ، يُشرِقُ في الظُّلمَةِ نورُكَ، ويكونُ ظَلامُكَ الدّامِسُ مِثلَ الظُّهرِ. (58 إشَعياءَ:6-10 )

Dear Lord, I pray that after every fasting for a change of mind seeing Gain instead of loss, Abundance in place off deprivation, Change that would go beyond 50 days...a shift from NOW to THEN...a THEN that would last...A relationship that starts NOW and Grows into THEN without fading away! I pray for YOUR VISION of change into EACH one of us, to be the LIGHT of Dawn bringing your LOVE to the World that screams for it! In Jesus Name, Amen.

Keep Shining...like the Break of Dawn my friends!