Fasting beyond Food (a guest contribution)

Thank you so much to Alice Kerby for allowing me to publish the following:

“Fasting is a form of worship that can help to bring us into the present moment and provide a way of focusing on a prayerful intention.

It is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible (Lev. 16:29, 23:29, Luke 2:37, 4:1-4, Matthew 6:16-18, 11:19…etc) and is a popular tool in the arsenal of the modern Christian against a world of excess and saturation.

But what about those whose relationship with food has been far from simple? Perhaps you feel as if you’re missing out on a valuable spiritual discipline and that makes you sad? How can we engage with the practice of fasting if we ourselves have had to heal from disordered eating patterns or the trauma of food insecurity?

 

As someone who spent many years fighting and concealing an unhealthy relationship with food and my body, I am acutely aware of the slippery slope that well-intentioned prayerful fasting can lead me down. Let me say with complete confidence that, if you have received healing from your trauma associated with food, your loving Father who created you does not want you to jeopardise that healing in order to participate in fasting. That would certainly not be a way to honour Him! Likewise, it should go without saying that if you are still on your journey to healing it is even more important to guard yourself against the temptation of engaging in any prayerful activity which might result in harm to yourself. I choose not to participate in the generic custom of fasting from food for important self-care reasons. That said, I have come to realise that this does not mean I have to exclude myself entirely from fasting as a discipline.

 

I see fasting as the temporary deprivation of something I have come to take for granted which can then serve as a reminder throughout my busy day of whatever intention I choose. In this context, I believe there are many things we can forgo which constitute as fasting and can be offered up in worship and prayer to God.

One of my go-to things to fast from is my mobile phone. This small electronic device embodies all my daily distractions, my monkey-mind indulgences, the centre from which my fear of boredom manifests. The experience of depravation from this mental comfort blanket is one where, each time I reach for the pinging pacifier (which happens constantly throughout the day, certainly more often that I eat!), I am reminded to turn my attention instead towards God. The lack of the distraction is certainly an uncomfortable one:The discomfort is a reminder of my prayerful intention: The focus is on God and this, for me, is fulfilling the purpose of a fast.

 

I hope my thoughts have enabled you to have a different perspective on fasting and, ultimately, to be secure in the knowledge that, however we choose to engage in prayerful self-sacrifice, it should be done with an awareness of our need for wellbeing”. (Alice Kerby)

Ingrid x