Since we’re on the topic of fasting …<\/p>\n\n\n
In the 1700s, John Wesley observed, “Some have exalted religious fasting beyond all Scripture and reason; and others have utterly disregarded it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
In 2021, the good news is that we have completely eliminated half of that problem. I don’t know of anybody who exalts religious fasting in any way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
I have done a little bit of fasting in my lifetime, usually over Lent, but I have never maintained a regular weekly fast. Now, since both of my current classes touch on the spiritual disciplines, I have committed to fasting once a week – no bedtime snack after dinner on Wednesday and nothing all day Thursday until dinnertime. Instead of joining the other teachers in the school lounge, I am staying in my classroom during my lunch period on Thursdays, then, to pray specifically about my future.<\/p>\n\n\n
I’m three weeks in and so far I can’t report any profound spiritual experience. I am not even sure if I am doing it right!<\/p>\n\n\n
Richard Foster, in his classic Celebration of Discipline<\/i>, recounts the story of a man who made a two year commitment to weekly fasting. It took that guy six months to start to truly understand what fasting was about. After two years, he had a great appreciation for the practice but he still felt like a novice!<\/p>\n\n\n
If I compare it to prayer or Bible study, I suppose I can see that it might take a while to develop “effective” fasting. I don’t pray or read Scripture today like I did when I first started.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Thank goodness for that. And thank goodness I stuck with them over time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since we’re on the topic of fasting … In the 1700s, John Wesley observed, “Some have exalted religious fasting beyond all Scripture and reason; and others have utterly disregarded it.”\u00a0 In 2021, the good news is that we have completely eliminated half of that problem. I don’t know of anybody who exalts religious fasting in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2006,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}