Sharing a pizza with a friend the other day I asked him if he wanted a third slice. He said he really did, but he refused because he was sticking to a new diet.

I asked him why he was dieting, and he said that he'd recently been to the doctor and the doctor had noticed some health markers were off and said that if he wanted to stay healthy he'd stick to this new diet.

So my friend said he was going to alter his diet because he wanted to be around for his wife and kids.

Today, Ash Wednesday, many of us will hear the familiar words of the prophet Isaiah who had similar reasonings when he chastised Israel for fasting solely for themselves, and not fasting for other people: Is this not the fast that I choose -  to share your bread with the hungry,

The true fast, Isaiah says, is done so that our discomfort benefits other people.

Today many of us are altering our diets, in the Episcopal Church fasting is recommended twice a year, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. And in our individualistic and narcissistic world we're tempted to think that fasting is just about us, our own spirituality, our own personal Jesus - and we can forget that God's plan is not about one of us as much as it is about all of us.

So as we go through this sacred, holy day and season of awareness, sanctification, and commitment, how is God calling us not just to improve ourselves through our spiritual practices, but in the next 40 days, how can we improve the world we live in?

May our fasting be intentional, inspiring, and even joyful, as we seek first not our own well-being, but the well-being of others.