Thursday, September 21, 2017

Fasting...weird

Lately, my mind has pondered a lot about my youth, and how lucky I am, given how stupid I was, to be where I am today.  There have been many points that are making this more and more obvious but the reason I bring this up today, is fasting.

I wrote a little about fasting and how it relates to helping those in Harvy and Irma in my article in the Boulder City Review (see here). But I recall how stupid I used to think fasting was. No matter how many Sunday school lessons I sat through on it, I just didn't see the point. It just felt like a way to torture myself by not eating. And given that the only reason I did it was that my sister, Ta, watched me like a hawk, that was likely all I was doing. Frankly, I could see why some people just think its weird.

The more I age, the more I am impressed with how wise occasional fasting is.

The world is full of good men who spread misery or fail to meet their potential because they cannot do the good they want to do. Why? Because they cannot let go of their own physical needs. They degrade women and break the hearts of their wives to gratify sexual passions. They leave their own children destitute because the drink has more pull on them than a job. They steal from their fellow man, due to the desperate need to get the next high. Even those without such obvious failings can be guilty of allowing passions to rob them. We wake up but can hardly think until we have had a coffee, or energy drink. We go to work but by 9 o'clock spend more time thinking about what we will eat for lunch than what we are working on.

While these minor personal addictions may not be so great as to cause us to destroy our family, does our focus on our own needs limit our ability to help others? Can we really be open to figuring out what we can do for others when we are worried about our next drink, cigarette, meal, sexual encounter, etc?

Men become great by learning to sacrifice their immediate desires in pursuit of something better. And at it's core that is exactly what fasting and fast offerings can teach us. It is meant to give us power to find and focus on goals and pursuits that are bigger than us. It is to learn to be able to set aside our own desires, even our most basic needs, when called upon to be able to open our mind and hearts to others. It is to teach us that no carnal appetite should be so strong as to distract us from celestial objectives.

Isaiah 58:6-11

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him...Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am...And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

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1 comment:

  1. Yes, the Lord blesses us in everything he asks us to do. I love how He explains fasting in Isaiah. Thank you for sharing,a great reminder, and so timely.

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