16 "When you fast, don't put on a sad face like the hypocrites. They make their faces look sad to show people they are fasting. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward. 17 So when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. 18 Then people will not know that you are fasting, but your Father, whom you cannot see, will see you. Your Father sees what is done in secret, and he will reward you.
today is World Hunger Day and i blogged a tiny bit about it yesterday. i want to risk losing all spiritual reward for my exploits today so that i could also hopefully impart a little of the struggle.
i've been fasting today. i decided that i'd eat breakfast and i'll wait until after the worship service tonight before i'll eat again but ... it's freakishly hard. i've fasted before and i don't remember it being more than a blip of a struggle but this time? it's different.
i cannot get past how much of a wuss i'm being as i also regularly have thought of over 900 million people in this world who live through this sort of thing out of necessity and not by choice. i've been picturing fathers in Africa who choose not to eat so that their child can have a meager meal. i picture mothers in Asia who may only have access to a tiny bit of rice to feed their entire family for the next week. i think of folks in China who have to consider that the egg that i could have for any normal breakfast would be a treat that they may not come across again for a calendar year.
and i sit at my desk at work and my stomach growls and i moan inwardly about why i can't go have a cup of coffee to start my day. i'm a complete wuss.
my life is beyond phenomenal when i put on my global specs. 2/3rds of the world would walk for miles on broken glass just to have the chance to join even the lowest tier of my economic society and i complain about a stomach gurgle.
Abba, open my eyes to change. open the doors of our rich societies so that more might be able to escape poverty, oppression and hunger and find a life that they deserve. help those of us born with a silver spoon to realize that there are many many more without a spoon whatsoever.
and Ian? don't be such a wuss either.
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2 comments:
Thanks for sharing that Ian. Every year, I challenge my classes to do a one day fast, or at least a one meal fast, and the older I get the harder it is for me. I think it is harder for us to do this kind of fast because it is such a drastic change of pace and our bodies don't know how to respond.
But the lessons that you have shared are good ones, and the compassion and awareness fasting brings are helpful as we more fully understand what it means to follow Jesus in our world today.
Thanks for sharing your struggle.
Fasts are so incredibly difficult for me and shouldn't really be done biologically anyways, but I've admired people that can pull the will and strength to do it.
Don't be discouraged! Keep it up!
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