To Talk or Not to Talk

If you know me at all, the answer to that line is almost always, 'Yes!' :o) Talking is not something I mind. (I am my father's daughter.) But when it comes to the Church and fasting, the generally consensus has been to not talk.

The other night I was doing some more research online and discovered something that really caught my interest. There are not a lot of Christian resources talking about the experience of fasting, and more specifically, going on a liquid or water fast. There are several new-age or eastern philosophy pages that include the same basic info over and over. A few people have posted daily video blogs through day 16 - I did find one on day 21, but none were believers.

I think this may be from a combination of two issues at work:

1. Talking about fasting, or more specifically your own fast, has become taboo in the church. As we discovered through our own church's preparation and fasting classes, many people have been told fasting, but very very few have been taught fasting.
2. Perhaps Christians are rarely fasting for extended periods, and since it has become a more rare discipline, those who do fast are not able to do a liquid/water fast, and more commonly use a Daniel-type fast. There are large amounts of information on this type.

But even if you aren't thinking about liquid/water fasting, there is still the question of whether or not you talk about your fast. Last night I had this conversation with some folks before the prayer meeting. What if someone at your workplace asks why you aren't eating lunch? You may have been taught that you're not supposed to talk about the fact that you're fasting, but how do you answer a direct question? You certainly don't want to lie.

Just as what you are fasting is between you and God, how you discuss your fast is also between you and God. But, here are some things to think about:

• The only rebuke of people talking about fasting comes from Jesus, to the Pharisees, who were hypocrites, and going around saying "Oh woe is me!" to show off how spiritual they were with their pride of fasting and tithing.
  
• Scripture records many, many stories of people fasting. It's clear not only that it was common, but normal for groups to fast together. Here is a comprehensive list of fasts, including whether they were individual or corporate. If no one was allowed to know about it, why were they recorded?
• There is help in community. I'm not proposing we shout to the world around us, or sit and have a corporate pity party, but discussing the ups and downs within the community that is fasting with you, does not seem to be against Scripture. I'm willing for my mind to be changed on this, but so far I haven't found that.

So here are some heart-checks that I think will help us be able to "tawk amongst ourselves" in a Godly manner:

• When you are talking about fasting - what is your pride doing? Is it welling up inside you or not? Ask God to make this clear to you.
• If you start the discussion, will it cause undue attention towards you or end up in any sort of self-promotion? If it does, it would be best to avoid this.
• Is the conversation drawing attention to the difficulty of fasting or how spiritual you are for fasting, or is the attention on what God is doing in your life, despite the discomforts?
• Will you walk away from the conversation feeling good about yourself for fasting, or will you walk away feeling good about God and His work? There is only answer to that question that would give me an "okay" in my heart to proceed.

Your thoughts?