Freedom

I’d heard somebody talking about fasting being a “test of ones freedom”. Those of you who know me also know I have a tendency to enjoy a pint of beer. In the weeks prior to Shrove Tuesday I was enjoying beer quite a lot, in fact, more often than not. I decided to give up for lent, in a way just to see if I could live without it. I was apprehensive, to say the least. In fact this was to have been the longest I had gone without beer since I was 16 – that was in 1988! There was going to be less to look forward too after a hard day’s work, or after the ‘little service’ at Foundation.

I’m not great at the whole temptation thing: is weakness a opportunity, or is opportunity a weakness? Heard that somewhere too! OK, I’ll admit, I did have 1, one, only one, very slight pint of Kronenberg, whilst waiting for a curry about half way through lent. There was a (SERIOUSLY DODGY) pub across the road from the curry house. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a ‘bad pint’, which I can usually spot after the first swig, but I guess I was caught up in a whirlwind of rebellion and greed and thirst and curry-expectant adrenaline, and just got on with it. I spent the next 8 days never more than three meters away from a bog. Depending on your theology, this could be punishment! Mine would say it’s a divine sense of humour!

Anyway – its now Easter morning. I’m going to stop waffling to you lot, and get on and celebrate new life in Christ – over a pint of cold, lovely, thirst-not-quite-quenching, lager, in a glass which glistens as the drops of condensation follow the path of least resistance, in parallel to the brew at the back of my throat. How’s that for freedom?

Happy Easter.