Thoughts on Shared Life: Fasting in Community
Friday, December 14th, 2007I’ve fasted recently for two weeks. I’ve wanted to do a longer fast for some time but feel it is unwise to completely fast while still working. So I borrowed a book from a brother about juice fasting and procured a juicer from an old friend who was not using hers.
My motivation for fasting is both spiritual and physical. Spiritual in the sense that I feel several changes coming on the horizon, and I want God’s will done. This includes the birth of my child and growth among the fellowships I am a part of. Fasting goes hand in hand with seeking the eternal will of God. As Andrew Murray says, prayer reaches to heaven, fasting teaches you to let go of this world.
Physically, I’ve wanted to fast to detox my body, clean it out, so to speak. Pure fasting accomplishes this the best, as your body switches from processing food to deep cleansing of toxins, but juice fasting does this fairly well, too.
I generally fast once a week anyway, but I wanted to get through two weeks with this particular fast. I would have gone longer, but the upcoming baby and holidays didn’t feel right to continue the fast. I’ll probably do it again in January for a full 30 days or so.
I’m actually getting more nutrients from juice than three meals of solid food could produce. Most of the time, the fresh juice is pretty good, too.
My biggest struggle hasn’t been hunger. I’ve craved the taste of food more than anything, like my mouth is particularly addicted to the taste and feeding that desire. This is where most people mess up what good they could have achieved on their fast: they gorge themselves with food and severely hurt their bodies when coming off a longer fast. A quick admission: I’ve done okay with this, but the potato skins the other night when I was hungry were a bad idea …
Living in community means always being around food. Most of the time, food I really enjoy eating.
I struggle with fasting in a community. Breakfast is probably the only meal during the wekk where I am not around people … although I could be even then. This makes it difficult to strictly adhere to Jesus’ command to not let anyone know you’re fasting. I don’t tell anyone, but they know. In community, you are confronted with food out of love.
I also deeply believe that sharing meals together is a form of worship, a very important one. We don’t eat together enough … even Baptists. So my inability to physically break bread is in some ways grevious to me. Eating is an intimate thing. Despite my presence, not eating separates me from the Body somehow; I can’t fully explain it.
It comes to me that Paul deals with this when speaking of in marriage: “Do not deny one another except for times of fasting.” Perhaps I give myself too hard of a time, as intimacy will be affected during times of fasting.
I also struggle with my own physical image. Of course I will lose weight, but that is the focus for some people. I have not weighed myself - and will not - but get the question, “how much weight have you lost?” I know people are trying to be encouraging to me, but I am struggling to not focus on that aspect of the fast. My image and weight are not a primary concern … although losing a little bit of weight is part of the physical healing process.
My final struggle deals with others perceptions of what is going on. When others see me fast, there is a spiritual tension there that I guess is natural, but I still desire to fix it. (I’m probably not supposed to fix it, though) The tension arises from what others feel about seeing my example. They see their own weakness more clearly (”I could never do that”) or feel convicted about their own lack of fasting (perhaps they should … I don’t know) or even try to vehemently talk me out of it (”that’s dangerous and unhealthy! you have to eat something!”). Of course there are also those with experience with fasting that want to share with me.
So all of this goes on while I try to keep my motivation pure. It is not my motivation to expose or convict or worry or confirm others. The only pure motivation is to fast out of obedience to the Spirit of God and to sacrifice towards seeking first the Kingdom and His righteousness.
Part of me wonders how they fasted in the early church. I suppose they just allowed and encouraged as people felt personally convicted, taking from passages in Romans and elsewhere about the importance and freedom of each ones personal convictions. I could also see the early church fasting as a group, as a body, and seeking God through that, although it is unwise for some people to fast and I would find it uncomfortable to pressure anyone into fasting if not personally convicted to do so.
Anyway, fasting is great, and I find that when done with the right motivation and conviction, God’s voice becomes clearer and it enhances your intercession at the right hand of the Father. Maybe in January I’ll do some more on fasting.
Peace.