Remember Your Lenten Fast? part 2

“You can fool some of the people all of the time,” goes a well-known line attributed to PT Barnum, ” and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

And then there’s this —

To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
    law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
    and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
    ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
    Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’

     “Well, here’s why:

“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
    You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
    You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
    won’t get your prayers off the ground.”

— That’s what God says to us early in Isaiah 58.

Oops.

Awkward moment.

That’s true. It’s also true that you can fool God none of the time. Never.