"As fabulous as fasting is, it is at best simply a tool."
It’s almost a shame so much need be said on fasting. Enemas, juice machines, colon cleansers, detoxification—for most this will be helpful information and a comfort, but for a few, overabundant knowledge will increase anxiety. Posts on our Freedomyou Bulletin Board have brought this home to me. Am I drinking too much juice? Is adding mashed banana going to slow detoxification? How quickly can I expect to lose weight? Can I exercise while fasting? Will loss of weight cause flabby skin? Does fasting hurt the liver? Why do I feel dizzy? The mystery and spontaneity of fasting chills into a mechanical assignment where every physical experience must be understood.
Do not let this happen to you. Don’t allow the focus of Christ to be lost in tinkering with the tool. At the end of the day, no matter how educated you are or how many times you have fasted, there will be new frontiers and challenges because fasting is as complex as human nature, and mysterious as the touch of the divine.
Enabled By Obsession
When I first got hot on fasting and diet, it was all I talked about—after all these years I had found my missing key to bliss. Like an over-zealous army guard, I militarily scrutinized anything that tried passing by my lips. "Oh no thank you," I would smile with the tact of a fanatic, "I could never eat that!"
It did not stop there! I took it upon my humble self to educate any poor soul within earshot the horrors hidden in their lunch. Wasn’t I a precious something. Until one day, I meant someone more fanatical than myself. This unhappy man felt compelled by a higher calling, to complete my unfinished understanding about nutrition. It was awful, an utter turnoff. I thought, I hope I do not make others feel this way.
I did!
What had happened? My obsession boiled down to simple fear. Surrounded by offerings of naughty food, I believed that it was just a matter of time before this fad would collapse like so many times before, and I would be sent back to junk-food hell. Therefore I enabled myself by obsession.
All obsessions are rooted in fear. Those whom I have met over the years that are obsessed with weight-loss, dieting, or even speaking in tongues, and trying to land a new fresh anointing, were filled with fear, full of themselves and convinced of failure. Reminds me of how I have lived for most of my life. Oppressively fearing judgment, focused on what I should be doing for God, always failing, rarely experiencing peace and joy. Trapped in a cycle of repentance and failure—weaned on religion’s misunderstanding of obedience. There is only one door out of that insanity. Grace.
Related Article: Going Dark While Fasting