Greetings!
We held our annual 2 day planning event on Thursday and Friday of this past week. Pastor Tom suggested that, as in the days of Apostolic witness in the early formation of the Christian Church, that we should voluntarily spend the day before our off-site meeting as a day of Fasting (Acts 13:1-4; 14:23). Fasting has historically been a means of enhancing the things of the Spirit through denial of the things of the flesh.
Now, I have never been a devotee of fasting, but in the spirit of being a part of the team, I decided to fast with the rest of the staff last Wednesday. The problem of fasting was immediately exacerbated for me by the fact that my office is near enough to the kitchen that I was constantly inhaling all the delicious aromas from the cuisine down the hall. Simply said, It was a long day!
But I will admit that fasting as a discipline does enhance one's life. It's very much like installing new programming on your computer. It opens windows that you've never seen through before and it provides a key to walk through doors which lead to a new spiritual relationship with God.
But more than those traditional values and virtues of fasting, we were able, even for just a moment in time, to experience and to share what our needy brothers and sisters at the Mission have often experienced involuntarily in their lives. I felt that our day of fasting generated a new sense of spiritual solidarity with our guests here at the Mission....at least it gave me a window into their more deeply felt need for food and shelter...and how desperate that need truly is.
It was, for a moment, like walking in another person's shoes. Or like the prophet Ezekiel experienced when he went to preach condemnation to the Israelites in exile. He chose at first to dwell with them and to understand them before crying out against them. "And I sat there among them, overwhelmed for seven days." (Ezek. 3:15) He who came to speak and to denounce spent a week sitting and listening, and how that changed his message and his approach to their lives and their present situation!
Now that I look back over the past week, I've come to understand that fasting is more than mortification of the flesh. It is also edification of the mind! I'm sure that my brief day of fasting here at the Mission has helped me to better understand those who have involuntarily endured the pangs of hunger in this world, and it has made me even more appreciative of the table that we set before our guests three times a day here at the Mission.....thanks to your help.
