Tag: hunger

My friend Sue is a master faster.  She once did a 40 day fast.  Honest.  With only fruit juice and a very understanding family.  And she’s a pray-er too.  She truly did the whole thing right!  I kind of  want to hate her but she’s just too nice.

I, on the other hand, am fasting FAILURE.  I am just hopeful that when Jesus said, “WHEN you fast…” He didn’t really mean it.  I’m hoping that Matthew 6 is the “I’m just kidding, you don’t really HAVE to pay attention to this” section of the Bible.  It doesn’t really count.  It was really just for “back then”…“yesteryear”…”days of yore”…

Last week our church challenged people to a kind-of sort-of fast.  Not the real kind where you don’t eat anything and don’t tell anyone and you go into your closet and just focus on prayer and God and pious thoughts.  Instead, this was a rice and beans fast.  For three days we were challenged to eat a cup of oatmeal for breakfast and a cup of beans and rice for the other two meals of the day with only water.  We were doing this for two reasons:  to experience what most of the world lives on, and to contribute the money we saved to World Vision’s program for alleviating hunger in Somalia.

Here’s what I learned:

• I am a cranky pants baby when it comes to any sacrifice in this area (I’m probably a cranky pants baby when it comes to ANY sacrifice, but I’d rather not think about it).
• I get sleepy, headaches, and lack attention without my morning coffee
• Every commercial on T.V. is about food