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Just recently in our local newspaper, there was a big story (in the sense that it took up an entire page) about a local pastor who has a goal to give away one ton of food to those who are without in our community. It's certainly a good story about a man putting his faith into action to serve the less fortunate and calling on his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to do the same. His initial vision was for "one ton", but he has since partnered with our city's homeless shelter and the goal now is to go beyond the one ton and actually open up a store where all of the food is free and people can come in and "shop". While the idea is Christ-like because it provides a basic necessity for individuals and families, there was one part of the article that stopped me in my tracks. The pastor is quoted as saying that "the nice thing about the store idea is that people can pick and choose what they want". He went on to say that "we are a picky people by nature". Is this really something we should just accept?

Now I am not trying to put down this pastor's vision because he is clearly living out the gospel and doing what he feels God has required of him to do. And truthfully, he's right that we are a picky people. But I worked at the local homeless shelter for several years and I knew how hard the cooks and their volunteers worked to prepare well-balanced, healthy meals, only to have many of the guests simply throw away the items they did not want to eat and load up on the items that gratified them. I also dealt with ungrateful residents who complained about the choices (or lack there of in their eyes) they were given at snack time, as if they were entitled to receive the snack we offered in addition to 3 meals. I often thought to myself, "How in the world can they say that they are truly needy or hungry when they are still at a point in their lives where they feel comfortable turning away food or throwing it away and wasting it?" Let me be clear again. I'm not saying that we shouldn't continue to feed those who come to be fed, particularly given that God has blessed us abundantly. I simply bring this up because it's relevant to our Word of the Week for this week. Because we are so used to having so much that we actually have CHOICES, we have lost sight of the difference between NEED and WANT. In some places in the world, hungry children are perusing garbage dumps to see if they can find ANYTHING edible. They don't have homeless shelters to go to and pick from the wide variety of choices provided by generous donors.

Quite frankly, the point of fasting is to remind us of the difference between what we need and what our flesh craves, and also to remind us of who it is that supplies our every need. In the story of the Exodus in the Old Testament, the people of Israel cried out to Moses because they were hungry and thirsty and they were waiting for God to show up. When God did, He provided water out of a rock (who knows how it tasted?), manna (a flaky bread-like substance), and quail (when is the last time you desperately craved quail?). My point is, God allowed them to become so hungry that they accepted when He provided for their needs and didn't complain about the choices. While they got angry with Moses, to the point they wanted to stone him, and were likely very irritable otherwise, God allowed all of it to happen to teach them the difference between their fleshly cravings and daily physical needs. He also showed them that He would never let them get to the point where their basic needs were unmet. When you and I fast, we willingly allow ourselves to become hungry and dependent on our Father so that we can train our flesh and gain power over its cravings. We remind ourselves that we must depend on Him alone for strength, and not our own futile methods of self-gratification and self-preservation. And finally, we remind ourselves that having choices is a privilege that we must never get too comfortable with because we don't know how long we'll have them. Just ask someone you know who either lived through the Great Depression or who had immediate family members who did.

Jesus himself went through the discipline of fasting. While he was being tempted by the devil after having fasted for 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS, Jesus quoted Scripture saying, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). In this passage, Jesus is actually quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses is reminding the people of Israel about why God allowed them to go through the period of hunger. Check the passages out for yourself. But even more than that, really think about the truth of such a statement by Jesus and Moses. Do you realize that every breath you take, every food item you receive, and every other blessing you have that is not owed to you DEPENDS on God's word? I don't mean that it depends on the Bible. I mean that it depends on God allowing it to happen. It depends on God saying that it is so. Just like in ancient cultures where a person lived or died based on the word of the king, so it is with our lives dependent on the word of our eternal King. The purpose of fasting is to intentionally remind ourselves of this truth, which will humble us as it did the Israelites and make us much more grateful for all that God chooses to give us. It may be a lost discipline in the Church today, but that just makes it all the more necessary for us to practice it in our individual walks with the Lord.