fasting

Over the weekend I was talking to my 10 year old about fasting during Lent. She’s given up using Yahoo email and I’ve given up listening to the stereo in the car. I asked her, “What do you think about instead of doing email?” I told her that a good thing to think about is how much Jesus gave up for us and how much we try to substitute other things for knowing Jesus. But it was hard for her to understand, although I have to give her credit for actually keeping her fast.

I’ve been suggesting fasts from activities as well as fasting from food as legitimate ways to fast during Lent. But I’m realizing that there’s something very human and essential about fasting from food that’s missing when I fast from an activity. Being hungry is a basic human experience, something built into us by God. And when I fast from food I’m participating in something that Christians have done since Jesus. (The Lenten fast is patterned after Jesus’ 40 day fast in the wilderness right after his baptism. And Jesus’ fast was based on a spiritual practice that had existed for centuries in Jewish spirituality.) Jesus fasted from food regularly as part of his prayer life and endorsed it for his followers (Mark 9:29).

So although fasting from an activity like watching a favorite TV show or from using your Blackberry an hour a day does help to remind us about how much other things are taking the place of God’s voice in our lives, I think I’ll get back to fasting from food.