An Inkling
From time to time someone will ask me about fasting. “Why fast? And if so, how?” With Lent commencing this week, fasting comes to mind.
It’s strange that fasting is strange. Fasting was both assumed and common through most centuries of the church’s life. Now it is neither. What is common is the assumption that desires are to be satisfied immediately, and the expectation that every meal should be a feast. Few of history’s kings feasted as sumptuously as we dine daily. And yet our prompt and plentiful platters have not fully satisfied our hungers. Thus the questions about fasting. And thus the attention Jesus gave to the Old Testament wisdom that “one does not live by bread alone.”
Fasting is a means of giving attention to a deeper hunger by shunning the satisfaction of a lesser hunger. It is that deeper hunger which engages us more intently in our prayer conversations with God. However it is that body and soul are wired together, the satisfaction of physical hunger often quells spiritual hunger as well. Conversely, shunning physical hunger for a season serves to enhance spiritual hunger in ways that earnest efforts alone cannot.
How does one fast? Begin by asking your doctor if it is safe for you. If so, then start small. Skip lunch and pray once a week. Then build from there. Try a day long fast (not from liquids!) and use some of that mealtime for additional prayer. See what you learn. And fill out your learnings by studying some master writers on such things. I suggest Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline or Dallas Willard’s Spirit of the Disciplines.
We are entering the season of Lent, a time when Christians have traditionally given extra attention to various spiritual disciplines which posture us in readiness for God’s transforming work in our lives. Fasting is just such a discipline, and the feasting of Easter is well-prepared thereby!
Hungering for something more,
Keith
