Fasting

Fasting: Spiritual Freedom Beyond Our Appetites - Lynne M. Baab
Fasting is freedom from the things - good and bad - that easily enslave us. "In fasting, God invites us to experience the kind of freedom that is rooted in healthy discipline and meaningful sacrifice" (10). It frees us from being enslaved to our habits. It allows us to experience God in new ways - new ways that only become available as we give up old ways. Fasting is not self-punishment. It is indulgence to excess that is spiritually bankrupt and self-destructive. Fasting does not deny the body, but rather, affirms it in its role in our spiritual formation. Our goal is not to deny the body per se, but to integrate all things in seeking God. To some extent, fasting is this simple: "We remove something habitual so we can experience something new" (16). Fasting is counter-cultural. It makes no sense in our indulgent, consumer-driven society - a culture that demands we consume more things, better things, at an ever-increasing pace. But discipline and indulgence are in tension with one another. We lose space for God and for others when our thoughts are consumed with self-indulgence. Fasting opens a path to freedom from over-consumption and perpetual self-indulgence. It opens a space that we may fill up with prayer and good works. It allows us to identify with the poor and needy, the hungry and empty. It reveals how ungrateful we are for the many blessings we possess. Since fasting is never permanent, it places us in a rhythm of fasting and feasting, rather than the endless treadmill of more, more, more. Fasting does not automatically make us better people. See Luke 18:9-14 for proof of this. But it holds the potential to, if our hearts are right. Ultimately, fasting reminds us of the great self-sacrifice of Jesus, who gave himself for us and our sins. In light of this great sacrifice, how small and petty our own often appear. Oftentimes, fasting reveals our accessive attachments to things - attachments that we grip so tightly we are unable to be open to God. "In the Western world we need fasting today more than ever. Because we are submerged in a sea of advertisements that encourage us to consume endlessly and mindlessly, we need times to withdraw from our consumption to remember what really matters. We need moments of freedom from the forces in our culture that encourage acquisitiveness" (140). This book is a helpful and practical introduction to an important subject.