Ok, let's all fast together... but how??

By now hopefully you've heard that across the entire Pittsburgh metro we'll be fasting March 24-31. If you haven't heard this, I recommend leaving this blog entry immediately and reading Jason's last two blogs about what fasting is and what fasting isn't. In fact, go read them right now either way.

Ok, so maybe we all understand the motivations for fasting and some pitfalls to avoid. Perhaps we're all motivated to join together as a community in humility to seek the Lord through fasting. How in the world are we going to do it?

Each person is uniquely different in their habits, ways of connecting to God, schedule, medical history, etc., so by far the most effective way to do this community fast is for each person to choose shis own plan for that week. (Have you heard of the word "shis" before? It was a noble effort by grammarians to create a gender-neutral possessive pronoun that was less bulky than "his or her," but obviously it was a colossal failure. I still like to use it from time to time.)

Here are some main options for your fast:


Food fasts

During any food fast, you will experience physical hunger. You should allow this hunger to motivate you to hunger after God, realizing that your need for Him far exceeds even your need for physical food. An added bonus is the extra time it frees up to act on that spiritual hunger and spend time with God.

1. Total food fast

I know very little about this one, and I don't recommend it. I think it entails just drinking water for a week, and maybe some broth, with perhaps some vitamin supplements. If you feel led to fast in this way, please consult someone who has done it and/or a nutrition major.


2. One meal per day

For this fast, you abstain from one meal each day. During that time, you spend time with God, meditate on His Word, etc.


3. Daniel fast ("no meats or sweets")

Daniel rejected the king's choice food and wine, opting instead for a diet of vegetables and water (see Daniel 1:8-20). Similarly, someone on a Daniel fast sticks to things like vegetables and fruit, eliminating meats, desserts, cola, etc.


4. Sun-up to Sun-down

This fast entails abstaining from food during the period the sun is visible in the sky. In terms of meals, this would mean fasting from breakfast and lunch and having a relatively late dinner. This gives you the aforementioned benefits of a food fast for the better part of the day, while still allowing you to receive nourishment and not die of starvation.



Other types of fasting

For medical reasons, plenty of people can't readily participate in food fasts. But there are other types of fasts out there; if you can't food fast, or if you think one of these other fasts would be more effective for you, feel free to explore these options.


1. Media fasts

a. magazines
b. internet
- facebook
- lostpedia
c. TV
d. movies
e. secular music

In a media fast, one abstains from any or all of the above (and/or anything I've forgotten to mention). I think the best way to choose a media fast is to think about which of these media sources wastes the most of your time and/or pulls you in a direction away from God. Fast from everything on the list that qualifies as one of those two things (time-waster or negative influence).

The greatness of this fast is that it can free up tons of time to spend with the Lord, and possibly begin a process of permanently removing negative spiritual influences from your life (inappropriate movies/music, etc.).

I'm personally going to do a media fast for our community fast. I'm going to do my best to do a full media fast and abstain from everything listed above.


2. Customized personal fast

Along the same lines as the strategy for choosing a media fast above, you can create a personalized fast that makes sense for your life right now. Maybe you need to fast from a person, a book, a particular website, a hobby... you would know this better than I would. The same guidelines would apply for choosing your fast -- what wastes my time, and what pulls me away from God? Whatever you come up with, fast from it.

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The fast will officially begin (3/24) and end (3/31) at Cru. I'm excited to hear what you guys will be fasting from! If you have any questions about fasting, please ask anyone on the staff team or Rob Yon, who gave a great talk about fasting a couple nights ago at Cru.

I'm excited to see what God will do as we seek Him together.

Jon