by Clint Wilson | Pastor | Spiritual and Theological Formation
[This blog is a reflection on the fourth week in our Lenten guide, “The Art of Presence: Practices for the Time of Lent.” This guide encourages daily habits oriented toward core, spiritual practices—in this week’s case, the art of Fasting. If you’d like to receive these short, weekly guides, you can sign up for the weekly email by clicking here.]
For me, fasting has rarely happened on purpose. And for that reason, fasting has normally been an unspiritual experience. My idea of “fasting” is working through lunch, finding myself sending a grouchy (read: hangry) text to a loved one, and then spending whatever remains of my day complaining about how terrible I feel. Bruce Springsteen, a.k.a. The Boss, famously sings “Everybody’s got a hungry heart,” but I know enough cases to argue, with a relatively high degree of certainty, that “Everybody’s got a hangry heart…”
In all seriousness, hunger (physical, spiritual, or otherwise) often leads to other sets of emotional responses. It can cause fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, and lethargy, to name only a few. In “fasting,” we expose our humanness, our mortality. We tap into that animal reality that we are utterly dependent on God’s provisions and pathways. Provoking these feelings with a plan to deliver those feelings over to God can be a spiritually rich journey.
And yet, please don’t miss one key word in that previous sentence: “plan.” Fasting is not some form of punishment or a means of seizing control of our circumstances through some form of self-inflicted discipline measures. In fact, when healthy, fasting is the very opposite. Many struggle with unhealthy and disordered relationships to food, and in these cases, it is very possible that fasting from food is not a good way to begin this spiritual journey. In these situations, consider seeking other forms of fasting: from social media, from some behavior or habit in your life that is not leading to your healthiest, fullest sense of life in God.
We must counterbalance self-denial with self-direction: when it gets hard and when we struggle to steady our emotional state of mind, we must ask where to take these feelings. We must, as the prophet Joel insists, Rend our hearts and not our clothes (Joel 2:13).
No matter what form your fasting might take—if and when you fast—there is one common denominator. Fasting is premeditated discomfort. That discomfort leads us outward, with the goal of carrying all of this to the God who promises to “wipe away every tear” from our eyes (Rev. 21:4). For that reason, it can be an opportunity for confession, self-control, reflection, or even joy.
Fasting also often accompanied the beginning of great journeys and tasks in the stories of scripture. (After all, it is how Jesus began his public ministry.) What journey might the Lord be calling you toward through this fast? When you think about those things that you long to change about yourself (to be honest, my list is long and growing), how might fasting create the space and emotional terrain on which to mount that journey toward not simply self-improvement, but more vitally—the challenging task of handing over our full lives to God, who promises to complete every good work he began in us (Phil. 1:6).
The novelist David Mitchell writes, “Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” Taking great journeys are a chance to learn about the world around you, but in so doing, you also develop chances to learn about yourself: your limits, your beliefs, your hopes. And yet, it is also true that long journeys are a chance to meet God in new and different ways. Spiritual practices are like trips within our souls, great journeys begging for willing feet and able hearts. There is adventure in the journey of fasting and self-denial if we are willing to humbly trust God with creating the road ahead.
This week’s practice…
Practice #4: Fasting
The Practice: Self-denial as a path to self-forgetfulness, freeing ourselves to feel our need for God’s Spirit more deeply.
The Point: Providing us space to quite literally feel our need for God’s Spirit more deeply.
The Purpose: How does denying myself a pleasure or habit, even temporarily, allow me to experience God’s presence more fully?
Key Verses: Isaiah 58:3–9