Ascetic - a person who abstains from the normal pleasures of life...

I put that definition up there because when aaron asked me to read this passage i'm going to share with you, "the ascetic" was the title and I had no idea what it meant. Not off to a good start. So, I put it up there just in case anyone else didn't know :)

First, let us consider the ascetic movement, God's "no" in Jesus. Jesus' words are brief and stark: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me (8:34). The ascetic life deals with life on the road with Jesus to his death.

Two verbs leap up from the sentence and pounce on us: deny yourself and take up your cross. Renunciation and death. It feels like an assault, an attack. We recoil.

But then we notice that these two negatives are bracketed by the positive verb, "follow," first as an infinitive, then as an imperative. "If anyone wants to follow" opens the sentence; "you follow me" concludes it. Jesus is going someplace; he invites us to come along. There is no hostility in that. It sounds, in fact, quite glorious. So glorious, in fact, that the great verb "follow: sheds glory on the negative verbs that call for renunciation and death.

There is always a strong ascetic element in salvation. Following Jesus means not following the death-procrastinating, death-denying practices of a culture that by obsessively pursuing life under the aegis of idols and ideologies ends up with a life that is so constricted and diminished that it is hardly worthy of the name.

Grammatically, the negative, our capacity to say "no", is one of the most impressive features of our language. The negative is our access to freedom. Only humans can say "no." Animals can't say "no." Animals do what instinct dictates or what training embeds in them. "No" is a freedom word. I don't have to do what either my glands or my culture tells me to do. The judicious, well-placed "no" frees us from careening down many a blind alley, from bushwacking through many a rough detour, frees us from debilitating distractions and seductive sacrilege. The art of saying "no" sets us free to follow Jesus.

If we adhere carefully to St. Mark's test, we will never associate the ascetic with the life-denying. Ascetic practice sweeps out the clutter of the god-pretentious self, making ample space for access to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; it embraces and prepares for a kind of death that the culture knows nothing about, making room for the dance of resurrection. Whenever we are around someone who is doing this well, we notice the lightness of step, the nimbleness of spirit, the quickness to laughter. H.C.G. Moule wrote that these dominical negatives "may have to carve deep lines in heart and life; but the chisel need never deface the brightness of the material."

From Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene H. Peterson

I don't know about you but I want to be someone who has a "lightness of step, nimbleness of spirit, and quickness to laughter." For the next 40 days, I'm saying "no" to staying up late. Seems simple and inconsequential but let me tell you where God wants to work in this. He wants to give me the freedom to give my spirit a break from the crap that comes on tv after 10. He wants to give me the freedom to give my body the rest that it needs. He wants to give me the freedom to be at my best for my family when I wake up in the morning. And most importantly to grow my relationship with Him.

What about you? Is there something you have been saying "yes" to that is enslaving you? Give it up friend and enjoy the freedom that God has for you :)

I think I just offered an invitation. So, on that note, I'll wrap this up :) I'm just so glad that we serve a God who wants the best for us. Grateful that even when His people feebly attempt to sacrifice, He turns it around and blesses us. Amazing.