12 Witnesses

As always, you can check on the updates for others blogging the Spiritual Disciplines at Joe Kennedy’s place.

I agreed to write about fasting for two reasons: 1) I have done it on numerous occasions as part of my Spiritual Journey, and 2) I am terrible at it. I thought you might have the benefit of my many, many bad experiences.

You’ve heard by now that Jesus told His disciples, “When you fast…” – assuming that the disciples would be fasting and therefore we should also fast. I agree with this interpretation whole heartedly. I act on it sporadically.

Let me take a little different slant on this issue from this point on. I am going to write a little tongue in cheek and mock… myself. All of the things I am going to correct have been faults of my own. If they are faults of yours, then watch out.

Prolonged fasting is not a good way to lose weight. It’s not a diet. In fact it is a terrible way to lose weight. Your body realizes that it is not getting what you used to get and then starts working against you, trying to turn whatever it can into fat storage. A good diet is another story, but speaking as one who successfully dropped a lot of weight, try cutting your calories (you have to learn to be a little hungry if you’ve been piggy) and eating three small meals a day. Count your calories and aim for something less than 2,000 per day, on average. Obviously, go see a doctor and get some real medical advice.

Prolonged fasting takes a lot of planning. You need to set up what you will and will not be doing and you need to equip yourself. Again, if you are going into a long term fast – whether 40 days or a couple of days – see a doctor.

Don’t treat it as a spiritual hoop. Your prayers are not more magical and God is not impressed by your will power. I can hear Him now, “Wow, you went all that time without food? Well, I guess I owe it to you to give you what you are asking for…” Yep. I’ve done it this way.

It’s not true that you can’t tell anyone that you are fasting. I had someone tell me this once and I believed it. For years after that I would be tempted to lie or at least be very sneaky about fasting so that no one knew. When Jesus critiqued the Pharisees for standing on the street corner and twisting their faces, He was critiquing their motivation. You can’t wear “fasting” on your sleeve as a mark of spiritual oneupmanship. You can let key people in on what you are doing.

In fact, you should let key people in on what you are doing. I would never fast without my staff and my family knowing. Someone calls for a lunch appointment and my secretary simply says, “I’m sorry, but he isn’t available for lunch this week.” How easy is that? The rest of the staff would know so that they wouldn’t try to get me to go eat. We eat with each other quite a bit, so this would be necessary. It’s all about motive.

You don’t just have to fast from food. In fact, some folks, such as diabetics, should probably never do that. You can fast from tv, the internet, music, golf, guitar, or even blogging. Yes. All my time gobblers are right there in that list.

Finally, you should really understand what fasting is. You substitute the time you would be spending on what you give up in prayer and communion with God. That’s pretty much it. As I said, it is not a bargaining chip with God, so there is no other reason to do it.

Let me flip that and maybe it will make more sense. If you are giving up stuff but then giving the time you save to other stuff, then your fasting has benefited the role of other lesser stuff in your life. In effect, you have fasted for tv, or wherever you spend that time. Isn’t that something akin to idolatry? Isn’t that idolatry? Oh, yes. I’m guilty. That’s how I know.

If you fast, you should be spending the time you save in prayer. The goal of fasting is more time with God, and for my thoughts on that, see last week’s article.

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