Friday, March 3, 2023
“No Meat Today”
Argh! It’s back again! No meat today!
This challenge was laid on our doorstep long before McDonald’s introduced their Filet o’ Fish, although the sandwich’s inception was created because of horrid, “No Meat Fridays”.
After receiving feedback from last Friday’s Challenge, (which was also, “No Meat Today”), I suppose I could have changed my mind and offered an easier Challenge. Several participants seemed to struggle last Friday because they forgot to avoid meat.
“That’s okay,” I told them. “That was just a practice round. You get another shot next week.”
So, here we are at “Next Week”, and the Challenge remains “No Meat Today”.
This Challenge has had a significant impact on American culture, but the tradition is much older than the time that the first European explorers reached North America. Pope Nicholas 1st made abstinence from meat on Friday official in 866 AD (CE), but records show that the tradition was already widespread before then. Christians initially began to abstain from meat on Good Friday, the day that Christians honor the death of Jesus Christ. The practice became popular, and over the years, all Fridays during Lent were included. Over 1,500 years later, many folks today still practice the discipline to honor God’s work through Easter.
I don’t think any of us are going to spontaneously combust today if we decide to enjoy bacon for breakfast, chicken for lunch, and steak for dinner. However, consciously making this small sacrifice is good for the soul, teaching us that God appreciates our small sacrifices for something much greater.
So, here we are! It’s another “No-Meat Friday” and we can do this!
Daniel had a vision, “…Understanding that the vision concerned events certain to happen in the future—times of war and great hardship. ‘When this vision came to me, I, Daniel, had been in mourning for three whole weeks. All that time I had eaten no rich food. No meat or wine crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed.’ “ (Daniel 10:2-3, NLT)
