Fasting, Weeping and Mourning

"Yet even now," declares the Lord, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning;And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.JOEL 2:12-13 NASB

The point of the scripture of course is that we would lock eyes with God and agree with him on what the sin is.  That we would actually see our sin as actual sin and not try to justify, minimize, or redefine it.  This scripture is the heart-cry of God to have his people return to him.

Something else caught my attention though.  "...with fasting weeping and mourning" I find it interesting that fasting is linked with the fine art and high tradition of lamenting. something we don't really talk about much here in the states. We are quick to take on praise and even service, but I wonder how much of our spiritual walk is hampered by our decision  to avoid fasting and our inability to enter into a lamenting frame of mind.

So many of the psalms are laments.  Ecclesiastes is a whole book on lamenting.  Old testament times it was common to fast, tear your garments and put ashes on your head.  Even in our country in years past we would wear black arm bands, or wear all black for a period of time. During this time of mourning, people were more gentle with you, didn't expect you to jump right back into the busyness of life and gave you time to grieve, and so in this modern time we keep moving and don't do the reflection and repentance that generates a lasting change

I believe that if we saw our sin for what it truly was (not the minimizing and redefining thing we've turned it into), we would see the damage we've caused  and we would weep and mourn.