My Fasting Experience - Back In the Land of the Eating

I woke up this morning ready to eat.  To be honest, last night was one of the toughest of this fast.  I shopped for juices, fruits, vegetables, and yogurt to help me ease back into normal eating. (Okay, I also bought a few other treats that I am looking forward to eating after my digestive system is up and running again after its vacation.  Have you seen the recipe for Bacon Caramel Salted Brownies?  I am so making them...in a couple of weeks.)  But last night was rough.  I was really tired and my stomach really hurt.  I was looking forward to watermelon and apple juice this morning.

Yes, the watermelon tasted great!  So sweet and luscious.  The apple juice was strong, but wonderful!  I showered, dressed, watched the kids find a few eggs and dive into their Easter baskets, and we opened the final resurrection egg.  Then I went upstairs to pack my bag for the day.  I grabbed my journal and Bible and stuffed them.

That is when it hit me.  For the last 21 days I have forgone food and drink in order to give more attention to God, his Word, and prayer.  But now what?  It seemed so anti-climactic.  Kind of like the day after a big birthday when life goes back to normal.  Honestly, I wanted to keep fasting.  Fasting has become my way of life for three weeks, and I am going to miss it.  I am especially going to miss what I have learned!

I know that fasting is not a long-term lifestyle.  Even Jesus resumed eating after forty days.  Now I need to come to terms with the reality that it is really not about fasting, but about the experiences gained and the lessons learned.  I have refocused my passion for God and for people who don't know Jesus.  I have refocused my top priorities, remembering again which things really aren't all that important.  I have developed again the habit of a daily quiet time with God that I don't want to lose!  Fortunately, I can continue in these things whether fasting or feasting.

My prayer, and how I ask you to pray for me, is that I would continue on this refocused, refined, re-defined path.

My Fasting Experience - Week 3 - Communion Really is a Feast

I have to admit that I am not really a sacramentarian. I just don't get it.  I appreciate the sacraments as signs that point to spiritual reality.  They are outward symbols of inward grace.  I believe that baptism and the Lord's supper are means of grace.  But my experiences of the Lord's Supper are not as "powerful" as the experiences of many of my friends.  Maybe it is because I am so analytical.  My most meaningful experiences with God usually occur in moments of intellectual awakening to new ideas or concepts, most often discovered in study of the Bible.

But tonight I experienced the Lord's Supper in a new way.  Tomorrow is the 21st day of my water-only fast, which I will break on Easter morning.  My body has digested no food for 3 weeks, and the only liquid I have tasted other than water is a 12 ounce bottle of green tea that I drank in sips last week to help with heartburn.

This evening, as we remembered the suffering and death of Jesus during our Good Friday service, we celebrated the Lord's Supper.  Even though I am fasting, I planned to fully participate in communion.  As I broke the bread during the institution of the ritual, I longed for a big bite of the carb-laden doughy goodness that we call bread.  I considered a mouthful, but the celebration of communion is only intended for a small bite of bread and a mere sip of juice.  What happened next was completely unexpected.  As I stood behind the table, waiting for our servers to give the elements to everyone in the room, God spoke to me.  "If this was all you ever had, would it be enough?"

In other words, he was asking, "I am enough for you?"

Throughout this fast, I have been regularly reminded of the words of Jesus, spoken while he was fasting.  Resisting the temptation to use his power to fill his empty stomach, he said, "Man does not live on bread along, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."  (Matthew 4:4, (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3))


Am I enough for you, or do you need food to make life enjoyable and meaningful?

As I invited the congregation to take and eat, I ate a small piece of bread.  With my senses heightened and taste buds cleansed from the extended fast, I enjoyed a morsel of bread like never before.  It was rich, salty, and delicious.  As I invited the congregation to drink in remembrance, the juice never tasted so good, full and filling.  A bite and a sip were enough...tastes that lingered and lasted.  I don't need steak and eggs, bacon and coffee and a sweet roll.  I need Jesus and his grace.

It was more than food, more than just pleasure for the palate.  It was food for the soul.  Yes, Jesus is enough for me.

Like the old song says,
     Hallelujah! I have found Him
     Whom my soul so long has craved!
     Jesus satisfies my longings;
     Through His life I now am saved.

One of my prayers as I break this fast is that instead of chasing the delicacy of the sweet and savory, I will allow Jesus to be the pleasure and comfort for my soul.

Source For the Hymn: http://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/325#ixzz2zIYBpdMU

My Fasting Experience - Week 2 - The Paradox of Strength

My original plan was to fast for 21 days, then break the fast a few days before Easter so that I could operate at full strength on our biggest day of the year.  Unfortunately, I realized too late that I started late and in order to fast for an entire 21 days, I would have to break the fast on Easter morning.  Ugh!  That would be like a quarterback showing up to the Superbowl not having eaten in a week! For a preacher, Easter calls for protein, calories and caffeine! So I decided to fast for only 20 days in order to get one day of recovery before Easter.  Until this week...

The second week fasting went remarkably well.  I felt no hunger pains, and the heartburn and stomach pain was minimal.  By the end of the second week, though, I started to consider how and when I would break the fast.  From what I am reading, how you break an extended fast is just as significant as the fast itself!  Having digested no food for three weeks, I will need to take it slow.  In my research, I am finding that it takes 4-5 days to resume eating normal food.  I have a plan and will stick to it.

Last Sunday was not easy.  Preaching twice was extra hard - I just didn't have the energy to project my voice and to be as animated as usual.  However, at the end of the service, so many people shared that it was a powerful message and that God really spoke to them.  One guy in his twenties came up to me with tears in his eyes telling me how he really heard from God!  Then, to cap it all off, a friend whom I trust very much told me that I preached differently....his words were "slower" and "more deliberate."  While I felt very weak, people were hearing from God like never before.

The apostle Paul tells about a spiritual encounter that left him in awe and how, in order to keep him from becoming conceited, God allowed him to struggle with what he called a "thorn in the flesh."  While we don't know exactly what it was, this "thorn" was a source of frustration, pain, and weakness for Paul.  He didn't like it.  But he grew from the experience. In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, he wrote this:

 "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I like this, but I don't like it.  I like to be strong, not weak.  As I look forward to Easter, I want to be strong!  I get to meet a lot of new people.  I will have the privilege to baptize eight Jesus-followers!  I get to share the good news of Jesus and invite people to make a life-long commitment to follow him!  I want to be strong, and "on my game!"  But I want God's power more than I want my own strength.  And if I can somehow experience God's "perfect power," then I am willing to be weak.

So, I will fast for the full 21 days and break the fast on Easter morning.  Then I will carefully follow my post-fast plan.  And I will pray like crazy that God's power will work in people's lives like never before.

My Fasting Experience - week 1

It seems like fasting is something that is largely ignored and not practiced in our American Christianity.  But I think it is time we give it some attention.

To this end, I recently lead our church through a five week Fasting Learning Experience.  We viewed the teaching series produced by Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia.  Jentezen is a revivalist pentecostal preacher who focuses more on the seeking the Lord than seeking his gifts and blessings.  He regularly fasts and leads his church through periods of prayer and fasting.  Specifically, he leads his church to fast for 21 days at the beginning of every calendar year.

After leading our congregation through five weeks of learning and practicing fasting anywhere from one meal to two full days, I felt lead to engage in a 21 day, water-only fast leading up to Easter.  I started a bit late, so it will end up lasting only 20 days, but it has been quite the experience.

When people first hear about such a radical concept, they immediately ask if I am starving.  Honestly, I am not.  They say that the hunger pains go away after a few days of fasting - and they are right! (thank the Lord!)  Yesterday I went almost all day with no hunger pain.  I do drink lots of water, and I have committed to drinking fruit and vegetables juices if I get weak.

An interesting thought occurred to me last week, about three days into the fast.  I was at a church meeting with our small group leaders, and I realized that while I was not physically hungry, I had a strong desire to eat.  My stomach was not growling, nor was I feeling weak.  But I wanted some food.  While there was no physical desire, I experienced tremendous mental and emotional desire for food.

I really enjoy food!  I like the various tastes of marbled steak, juicy strawberries, hot coffee, BBQ chips, burritos with salsa, bread of any kind slathered with butter, sweet and creamy desserts, and, well, pretty much everything.  It is enjoyable to taste food!  And it feels good to have a full stomach and then to rest and maybe take a quick nap.   Food is comforting!  So you could say that I enjoy both the experience and the effects of eating!  When I think about food, I don't know that I desire the food itself, as much as I desire the pleasure and comfort I get from it!

I think this is one reason fasting is so helpful.  It refocuses our desires.  When Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread, it was a very real temptation.  Having fasted for 40 days, he was no doubt hungry!  But in resisting the temptation he said, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)  I do not want my life to center on eating.  I do not want to find pleasure and comfort in food.  I want to find pleasure and comfort in the God who created the food.  I do not want to live on food.  I want to live on the words of God!  Yes, food is necessary for the human body, but if my body is well nourished and my soul is starving, I am not really living.

So in these few weeks of fasting, I am praying that God will teach me how to feed on his word and to find comfort, pleasure and purpose in him.  I am praying that he will refocus my desire, so that I desire him first and food second.