Fasting, Day 6

You might be wondering why I’m still calling this “fasting,” when I’ve already started breaking the fast. Actually, the most crucial period of fasting is when you break it. I’ve already referred to the Fasting FAQ which goes into more detail about this, but if you embark on a long, extended fast, you can even kill yourself if you jump right back into eating like you did before the fast. Since my fast wasn’t too long, I’m not in danger of that. But last time I did a 3-4 day fast, I ended it by eating a Southern Chicken Sandwich combo meal from McDonalds. I’ll let you guess how that turned out…

Last night, I had some veggie broth. This morning I had 4 pieces of chopped melons, and I felt full. For lunch, I had more veggie broth with some saltines for dipping and some more melons. I noted that by lunch time, my appetite had increased.

I was hungry again, so I had an early dinner. I ate baked chicken, and a little corn and mashed potatoes. Later on, I even had one of those quesadillas I was craving during my fast. No problems. I think I’m ready to return to normal foods again.

Here are some additional takeaways from this experience of water fasting that I haven’t already mentioned in previous posts:

1. I would like to start praying before meals as a family. I’ve never really done this, simply because I felt they are always so perfunctory. I know everyone else does them, and I’m a pastor, but I don’t want to do something just for it’s own sake. Why bother? It’s like when we open up church business meetings for prayer–most of the time, I find that time silly. Well, I have a new-found appreciation for food and for the time we gather to eat it together. I would like to have prayers at meals that aren’t perfunctory. I think this would be a great practice to begin.
2. I would like to try a juice fast in the future. I now realize how much more energy you have than when you only drink water. It was night and day for me when I drank that broth and juice last night. I think that is a more sustainable way to fast.
3. I realize more how important it is for our bodies to have food. Without it, you can survive for quite some time, but barely. I realize that this is all-too-often the state of our spiritual lives. We barely make it Sunday to Sunday. It’s possible to spiritually live this way, but how much we suffer spiritually! If we were to spend time each day nurturing our souls, what different kind of Christians would we be? Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to carry out the simple truths of Christ if we did feed our souls! It was so hard for me to do any simple task while water fasting, but once I started giving myself nutrients, how that changed!

I’m sure there will be further takeaways as time goes on. I don’t see this as an end–there are still 34 more days of prayer and fasting–and a lifetime after that!