You may have recently noticed your social media feeds full of people hash-tagging their Lent participation this past week – what they are fasting from, receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, joking about giving up talking to their mother-in-law (never, Polly!). There is perhaps something to be said for public, society-wide recognition of times of feasting and times of penitence. When everyone is fasting, perhaps this participation is less a drawing attention to one's self than it is a joinder to a corporate act that testifies of something beyond self.
Nonetheless, I cannot shake the feeling that there is something amiss about a hashtag, selfie, instagram-filtered Lent. Perhaps the everyday currency of social media is so based in the standard of self-promotion that such Lenten posts can’t escape the valence of personal branding. Fasts so often seem to be not an occasion for reflection on our frailty, mortality, and need for grace, but essentially an extension of the self-improvement mentality that began with tweeted New Year’s Resolutions in January and now finds new energy to power through February and March. Perhaps I judge folks whose public timelines seemed antagonistic to the things of God throughout the year, but will now be filled with Lenten progress reports in the coming weeks. Perhaps I am a curmudgeon. Perhaps all of the above.
I believe there is a plain application of what our Lord meant when he spoke of fasting in secret to be rewarded by God, not men (Matthew 6:16-18). No, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be times of publicly visible corporate repentance, but rather that the core of fasting is to humble one’s heart before God (see Psalm 35:13). This is so very hard to do when we are also broadcasting that to the world, particularly in a medium where digital kudos are as easy and fast as a click. The thumbs ups, likes, and retweets may provide a moment’s endorphins, but they are a lowly alternative to the reward offered by our Father in heaven. So, I encourage you that if you are fasting this Lenten season, do it away from social media. As you contemplate your own weakness and frailty, your need for Christ to sustain you and remake your broken places, do so in the quietness of your home, with open heart and open Bible, not open browser!
