I’m Fasting … and Pass the Gravy!
by Billy Strother
With four excellent blogs already this month, and, I am confident, another fifth excellent blog coupled with this one today, I feel meager to the task. What can I say about fasting which has not already been blogged, and blogged well?
In January of this year, I agreed to write this blog on fasting. Putting the task on my calendar, I promptly forgot about it. Last week, I realized something when I opened my to do calendar, which is connected to my electronic daily calendar: not only am I to write a blog on fasting, but it is just in time for Thanksgiving! Fasting is not a highly researched topic during the holidays. Nobody writes a blog on fasting on the precipice of the unleashing of the creative culinary delights of Thanksgiving! Except, well, here is one.
I have an annual tradition of fasting on the Friday after Thanksgiving, not because I am holy, but because I have eaten too much too many times on Thursday! It is pretty easy to fast when you are not hungry. Do I get credit for the I am too full to eat kind of fasting? I doubt it; but I am going get a legal decision on that once through the Pearly Gates. I am going to need every jewel in my crown that I can get. I fear there will be too much empty space on my crown. The two phrases I love most at Thanksgiving? Thank the Lord and pass the gravy!
In the first blog in the series this month on fasting, Jared laid out, with meaningful clarity, that fasting is related to self-deprivation from food. That is important to remember. It really is normally about food intake (and, at times, drink). Normally, no food is taken in, but water is consumed to stay hydrated. But what if you have a metabolism that finds that not eating food for 24 hours is a cake walk? (See what I did there? Fast ... cake ...). What if you have a medical condition which precludes fasting? A diabetic might endanger themselves in a season of fasting. Or what if, as in my case with a medical condition, your body has betrayed you and you just aren’t interested in eating; you eat to live rather than live to eat? (Thereby fasting is not a burden at all.) What if I go on a juice cleanse? Do I get to double-dip and get credit for fasting as well as cleansing too? (I don’t think so.) With food prices hit by inflation, it makes you sick enough to not want to buy food in the first place!
There is nothing wrong with eating ... it is a foundation of maintaining life. Our bodies require it to sustain life, and, I would argue, we often eat as a joy in life, a joy the Lord has given us. Who doesn’t love pecan pie?!
Yet, to die of starvation is a cruel condition. Food insecurity and deprivation are real. According to the reputable Christian Relief Fund, 854 million people world-wide are undernourished and every day 25,000 people (of which 10,000 are children) die of starvation. According to the USDA (for whom my lovely wife, Ms. Carol, works), in the US, 31% of all food stuffs go uneaten, spoiled, and becomes food waste, finding their end mostly in landfills. Retail stores must dispose of spoiled food; we throw away a lot of leftovers. (Come on; be honest. Does your family eat 100% of that Thanksgiving turkey?) About 5% of households in the US are food insecure, eating is reduced at times of the year because of insufficient money or other resources for food. It’s hard to believe, yet I imagine as a church leader you will be scrambling next week to get turkeys, hams, and food baskets to the food insecure where you live.
The point? If refraining from food is dangerous to your health, or of no physical challenge to you, then consider fasting the metaphorical equivalent. In refraining from food, the hunger pains, when they commence, are to remind and refocus us, to get our eyes back onto Jesus, in an ongoing (generally 24-hour) conversation with the Lord. It is permissible to fast an appetite (one which is not sinful), so that when the hunger to satisfy that appetite hits you, it reminds you to refocus. Is it “legal” to substitute fasting appetites other than those for food stuffs? Yes, because the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12 “...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (KJV).
Here is an observation about fasting: there is no commandment to fast in the New Testament. There is an assumption that you desire to and will fast. In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a few pointers on fasting, opening with the words “when you fast;” not “if,” but “when.” Fasting is a get-to, not a have-to. In an individual fast, we are not to pretend we are suffering or announce to the world how dedicated we are because we are fasting. Jesus said, “Put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting” (Matthew 6:16-18, NIV).
In fasting, which we do not have to do, we get to:
Demonstrate our devotion to Jesus;
Dive deeper in our walk with Jesus.
Declare a period of intense focus on listening to Jesus;
Drop all pretense of self-importance in the presence of Jesus; and
Discover again the personal caring nearness of Jesus.
So ... when you fast ...
