Fasting

About 20 years ago I was on the bus coming home from a track meet in high school.  Our coach gave us a lecture about something (I forget what), and it made me think about the suffering of Jesus Christ.  It was the Thursday before Easter and I decided that I would fast until Easter.  I am not sure if I had heard about fasting besides what I read in the Bible, but that’s what I decided to do.  That was the first time I remember fasting.  I also remember going to a Good Friday service with a few other high school students, and somehow we were able to get off of school since we were going to a Good Friday service.  I am not sure if kids can still do that today.  Today is a really good day to contemplate what Jesus Christ did for us, how he paid the price for us.  One thing I have learned about fasting is that it shows how weak I am, that I am constantly thinking about food.  Some people say that is why they do not fast, because all they think about is food and not prayer.  Kind of like the reason someone doesn’t play basketball is because they can’t make it in the hoop.  I wonder though if fasting is portrayed in Scripture so much because it constantly points out our weakness, showing us that we cannot do it.  It also shows us that this is how half of the world lives – hungry, and helps us to be thankful of the food we can eat.  Some people fast because they do not have any food to eat, and their prayer is constantly – “help me Jesus, help us Jesus.”  I know that some of you may get vehemently angry about stating that one fasts, and that I should not say that I have ever fasted so that people cannot find out, since our fasting must be done in secret (Matthew 5:18).  Maybe you are right.  But if fasting is a legitimate option for spiritual growth, how are our children to learn it if they are not taught it?  I live in a country (USA) that is overflowing with an abundance of food.  The poor in the USA rarely starve.  Maybe it is time that we talk to our kids about fasting, about saying “No!” to ourselves.  It could be that this discipline prepares the way for our kids to say no to other things like crack cocaine, bath salts, hydrocodone, and old fashioned pre-marital sex.  Maybe it will help them stop to think about the blood that was pouring down our Savior’s body as he died for us.  How can we teach our children to stop and think about what Jesus did this day of all days?   Maybe fasting can help us to remember that there is a more real food, the body of our Lord, and a more real drink, the blood of our Lord.