Lent Redux: The Partial Fast

The main goals we had during Lent were to try a partial fast and to be very dedicated about daily reading of Scriptures and having quality times of prayer alone and with each other as we prepared our hearts and minds for Easter. Within those two main goals fell the subheadings of understanding more about fasting as a religious exercise as a way to underscore the other spiritual aspects of our Lent-life, exploring the daily readings in the Book of Common Prayer, and having a structured prayer time focused on praise, confession, intercession for friends and requests for direction with our own list of life questions. A hefty to-do list to be sure! However, we stuck it out, and I believe it was a profitable time.

I commented on the fasting situation a short ways into the season and my thoughts haven't changed much. Fasting, no matter if it's partial/full/juice flush/whatever is just going to be a diet unless you make the effort to connect it to your faith and prayer life. Hanging a stethoscope around my neck doesn't make me a doctor, it's the intensive training and practice that do. The days I wasn't on my game spiritually speaking, were the days when doing the partial fast were a real drag. On the flip side, there were days at the tail end of the fast where our days were so crazy I wasn't making enough time for reading and prayer, but the fasting had become so routine I barely minded. I say barely because I actually caught myself just going through the fasting routine and thinking 'Huh, I don't even miss breakfast/dinner anymore' – and that's when I thought, 'Huh, didn't really spend a good chunk of time on prayer the past few days/get my second set of readings done today either…' getting numb to either automatically affected the other thereby nullifying the process. But then by thinking you've blown it, you end up confessing, and starting fresh again, and I think that pretty much sums up my life of faith overall. Fasting is an extension of our faith, both of which are dynamic, not static.

Fasting was also my underscore, my bold font, my highlighter to the rest of what I was doing during Lent. I noticed this right away, and it stayed the same throughout the season. Prayer and listening was in concentrate, not in the diluted form. Some days I felt all wrapped up in praise and adoration – life was punctuated by swirls, flowers, and lowercase i's dotted with hearts. Other days my readings and prayers were of a more grievous nature, or a questioning nature, and it was like writing in all capitals and then taking my pen and scratching underlines under each and every word so much the paper rips. Fasting was tough when I was preparing our lunches and wanted to sneak a few olives from the jar in the fridge and I would tell myself 'no can do – you're fasting!', upon which I would inwardly whine at myself before the lecture would start: 'seriously, what is the point of your fast? Don't you remember WHY you're doing this?' followed by confession 'God, this is FOR you, and about me and you, so I'm going to make my human effort and please help me and thanks for meeting me where I'm at.' followed by a reboot of sorts and leaving the jar of olives in peace. Relevant spiritual fasting gets into the nitty gritty of life.

Fasting is not for everybody. At least not like how we did it, which was fasting solid food except for lunches. There are all different kinds of fasting, and there are realistic limitations to how each person's body can handle any variation of them. I think my mom thought our hair would fall out and we'd waste away doing this for the 40+ days of Lent, ha. But we had vitamins and were doing a meal supplement drink thing that was approved for situations like this. We ate good, healthy lunches and ate like normal on Sundays since Sundays are not considered fasting days. Did we lose weight? Yes, but we'll gain some back by nature of eating 3 healthy meals a day along with the fact that the human body retains about 10 pounds of water just to digest solid food. But that's SO not the point – if you're fasting to lose weight then call it what it is, but don't try to then tack on a spiritual point because then you'd have to question your own integrity and that's no good. I have a friend who can't fast food because of health issues and that's many people's reality. I know God meets us where we're at and fasting is not required. I think it's a really great tool, but if you can't participate in this way, God knows. Our fast had to be really linked in to the amount of time we sacrificed towards reading and prayer, and in a way we were fasting our own laziness, schedule preferences, etc. But that's the next Redux.