A Fasting Journal

Having encouraged my congregation to fast for one day, preferably on Tuesday, I decided I better lead by example. So, I am fasting today,. Here are a few thoughts along the way.

7 AM - I forgot - I made coffee and ate a sugar cookie first thing this morning. I'll have to go until breakfast tomorrow. I'll stay with the coffee. This will be a coffee and water diet.

9 AM - Studying at home. Carol and Kim are waking up. I better leave soon, before I get grumpy and say something I regret.

11:30 AM - It's easier skipping lunch when you've skipped breakfast. I don't feel hungry.

12:15 PM - I'm sitting near a café at SRJC and smelling broiled hamburgers! Yum!

12:30 - I'm not suffering yet.

1 pm - I'm not even thinking about food. Cool.

1:30 -Fasting Tip: When fasting, don't hang around cafes. I'm moving to the library.

2:15 - Fasting is a discipline that improves my self-control. At least, that's what the say. We'll see.

2:45 - I'm reading about fasting. Lots of good articles, but you learn more by doing it.

3:00 - Ben Patterson is right. Food is a huge part of everything we do.

"What a slave I can be to food. Am I sad? I eat. Am I happy? Eat. Tired? Eat. Angry, depressed, bored? Eat, eat, eat. Do we have a social occasion? We must eat. My life can parody 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: 'Be eating always, eat continually, and eat in all circumstances.'"

Scot McKnight, a professor of mine at Trinity Seminary (His Greek class was the one class I really didn't want to quit, when I dropped out of seminary) and a Beliefnet.com blogger, defines a fast in his book, called Fasting:

"Fasting is a person's whole-body, natural response to life's sacred moments." It's the "body talking what the spirit yearns, what the soul longs for, and what the mind knows to be true."

3:11 - I just felt a twinge of happiness, contentment. I am really grateful to have a job in which I can hide away in the library, read the Psalms, write and pray.

4:21 - Oops. I went an hour without checking in on fasting. Fasting is not keeping me from being distracted and doing anything but what I need to be doing.

5:14 - I can say this. Though I have not been free from distractions, I have gotten farther on my Sunday message than I usually do on my study day. Time to quit and go home, but not for dinner.

Since when do libraries have food? Free food? As I left the SRJC Library, a table with punch and food was set up in the lobby where they have the art display. I looked away and walked fast.

5:35 - Walked by the back of the Tacqeria on the way to my car. I've seen the Tacqeria many times, but today I smelled it. It smelled delicious.

7:28 - Everytime I walk through the kitchen, I instinctively reach for a cookie, a roll, leftover food in the sink… Then I catch myself.

8:26 - Just finished a casual bike ride - about 50 minutes - and feel great.

10:30 - Itchy eyes. Allergies are getting to me. Was it too much to hope that fasting would cure my allergies? I am surprised that I have not felt much hunger all day. Temptation to eat, yes. But, not hunger.I am looking forward to break-fast, in the morning.

Summary - using the questions I gave folks on Sunday:

What does it feel like to be hungry? What is your body saying to you?

For me, I didn't feel much hunger. It was definitely not painful. But, I did hear my body, instinctively, telling me to grab food every time I saw it or smelled it. My sense of smell (to food) seemed more sensitive. I didn't feel as irritable this time. I remember fasting once and walking through a grocery store, wondering if I would be hungry enough, after a few days, to steal food, if that's what it took to eat. I hope I wouldn't. But, if my children who were hungry, I might.

Did you experience any spiritual benefit to fasting? How did it affect your praying?

I did not feel remarkably more spiritual. I think it takes more than a day to get that. I am more focused in general - in prayer and in study.

Did your experience of fasting change how you view people who are in great need?

Usually, I forget to pick up a few items for the Food Pantry. Today, I thought about it several times. Maybe I should break fast only after picking up pasta for he Food Pantry. (I asked people to bring the equivalent of the food you missed next Sunday for the Food Pantry. For June, they are requesting: Pasta Sauce, Spaghetti, Rice, Pinto Beans, Mac & Cheese.)

I'd love to read your comments - or hear them on Sunday.