scot mcknight has a very insightful and thought provoking article on fasting at his blog that begins to wrestle with the question of how we “use” and abuse fasting as some sort of magical technique to get what we want from God. he states that our understanding of fasting as technique (a spirituality based reason) from something that is a heart, body, soul, mind thing—a unified person (an anthropology based reason) is the reason why fasting has fallen off out of practice among many protestants.
it’s certainly a fascinating post that gives me something to think about…
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It is a fascinating post… I wonder if you could substite the word ‘praying’ for ‘fasting’ and make the same point.
I did ‘fast’ yesterday and I can tell the difference when it shifts even during the day to a technique. Or at least the temptation is always there to make it into technique. That’s what made me think of prayer in a similar light. When I pray, there is always the temptation to make it about ‘me’ or in some other way turn it into technique.
I used to use fasting as a technique to show God I was serious or maybe guilt him into listening to me (ala Ghandi).
But now I use fasting as a different kind of technique. I use it to intentionally link up seeking God (or His will) with habit or appetite. Thus, when I feel hunger, I remember I’m supposed to be seeking God or praying about a specific topic. This has been a very useful technique for me. If I’m fasting from radio in my car, every time I get in (and reach for the knob), I remember to seek God instead.
It’s still a technique. But I don’t know what else it could be.