March 2 1998

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What happens when you put a spiritual leader on a long, restricted diet? First you get a few complaints, and then this insightful essay, reprinted from CHRISTIANITY TODAY's sister publication LEADERSHIP: A Practical Journal for Church Leaders. The author is Ben Patterson, dean of the chapel at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

Someone said the prospect of standing before a firing squad marvelously focuses one's mind. Other things can have the same effect—like the telephone call from a friend last March in which he told me, "Perhaps the Lord is leading us to fast for 40 days."

Us? I hate to fast. I'd tried fasting, and instead of insights I got irritable.

When Bill Bright reported on his 40-day fast, I held him in awe—the same detached awe I have for someone who can run a mile in under four minutes. It's amazing he can do it, but it would be futile for me even to try.

My friend's call got my attention. As I prayed, the unwelcome conviction grew that a 40-day fast was precisely what God was asking of us. So we covenanted with 30 or 40 people to fast for the 40 days leading up to Pentecost.

...

The fast is now over. What our prayer and fasting meant for the kingdom of God remains to be seen, but my mind has been marvelously focused.

The first focus is on what a slave I can be to food. Am I sad? I eat. Am I happy? Eat. Tired? Eat. Angry, depressed, bored? Eat, eat, eat. Do we have a social occasion? We must eat. My life can parody 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Be eating always, eat continually, and eat in all circumstances."

I was surprised, then exhilarated at how free I was during the fast. What began as a command quickly became a permission. The permission? Not to have to live on the level of my appetites. "Do not work ...