Fasting

I was reading a devotion today about fasting (more about that later) and I tried to remember when I last fasted. The most recent time was my last colonoscopy. One of the joys of turning 50 is the scheduling of your first colonoscopy. I can’t tell you how much fun it is. 

The process is that on the day before your colonoscopy, you can’t have anything to eat except for certain colors of jello or popsicles and are encouraged to drink certain colors of liquid regularly.  At a prescribed time, you drink a prepared concoction. The form and format of the concoction has changed from time to time so I’ll focus on my last experience.  I mixed up a gallon of this horrible tasting stuff and had to drink 8 oz of it every 45 min until it was finished (have you ever thought how many 8 oz glasses there are in a gallon?). Here’s the problem, the stuff, although they try to make it taste palatable, tastes horrible. It is easy, at first, to force yourself to drink this crud but as your day wears on, it gets harder and harder.  Not only that but the purpose of the grossness is to force you into eliminating everything that has ever been in your digestive track.  You are constantly rushing to the bathroom or forcing yourself to swallow this increasingly repulsive liquid.

Eventually, you finish the concoction but its effects aren’t over for several more hours. This definitely falls in that category of experience where you dare not pass gas outside of the toilet. Let’s just say that all this activity has left certain areas raw.

The next day, you go to the diagnostic center, get called back and then you do not really remember the rest. They have told me that it is a consciousness sedation and you reply to questions but I’ve never remembered a thing. Afterwards, they tell you to go home and rest for the remainder of the day (but all you can think of is rushing to get some food). 

My surgeon, at my first colonoscopy, removed a benign polyp so I’m lucky enough to get to repeat them every 5-7 years rather than 7-10 years like most others. I’ve had three so far.

However, fasting for a procedure, and fasting in prayer are quite different reasons. Personally, I’ve never truly fasting for God. I fall into the category they describe as avoiding the concept of fasting. This devotion suggested that there are 3 benefits of fasting:

•   Fasting starves what is stopping us from experiencing God’s presence

•   Fasting invites us to give up something we love to make space for something we love even more

•   Fasting often comes before a breakthrough with God

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” - Matthew 6:16-18 ESV

“‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.” - Isaiah 58:3-12

I can’t say that my colonoscopy prep got me anywhere close to there but that wasn’t my objective either. I can see where, fasting for God, I could benefit quite differently. Perhaps I should reasonably consider fasting for the Lord.