For 15 days, I recently participated in a traditional Islamic fasting holiday called Ramadan. This fast typically last a full 30 days and consists of eating no food or water from first call of prayer (roughly 5:30 am) to last call (roughly 8 pm). This tradition is significant to the Islamic culture for a variety of reasons. For the less conservative, it is merely a tradition that has been passed down to resonate with those who are less fortunate and emphasize virtues of empathy and generosity. For the dedicated Muslim, Ramadan is a practice of one of their core pillars of Islam, which revolves around fasting as an act of spiritual growth. It is also considered a holy month due to the belief that Allah blessed the prophet Muhammad with revelation and the Quaran was revealed. It is a time for their community to fortify their devotion to Allah and strengthen their godly favor through virtuous deeds. For the Muslim follower, practicing the Ramadan fast carries an immense reward and is even believed to act as recompense for past sins. All that to say, this holiday is a pretty big deal here in Türkiye. As a Christ follower, I do not believe that there is anything I could ever do on my own to earn the favor of God. That being said, it is both interesting and heartbreaking to observe such a large community enslaved to this idea of striving their way to God with no solidified assurance that what they are doing is even enough. Yet their devotion is inspiring. If all of these people can go to such extremes for a false god, then why should I also not be joined in prayer and fasting in order to intercede for their freedom.
Now I wish to preface that I am not an avid faster. In fact, my view of this spiritual practice, prior my recent experience, was primarily conservative in that it was only for “emergency” situations. Also unlike the Islamic faith, I do not believe that disciplining oneself in this way will earn them “extra points” or favor with God, but I do trust that when one fasts based on the Spirit’s prompting, God can reveal Himself in new ways and deeper intimacy in that relationship is grown. In this case, I did have some personal reasons as to why I wanted to participate in Ramadan. To be completely honest, this recent stretch of the race had been very difficult for me in regards to loving my race community. Although my desire was to care for the people around me well, differences were making that very difficult and I knew that my heart had not been in the right place. At this point, I had been feeling prompted to start a fast and so this seemed like the perfect time to captivate on a cultural opportunity while also asking the Lord for peace and compassion to flood my heart. Therefore, I decided to enter into this fast alongside those practicing Ramadan in order to re-center on the Lord and be open to what He wanted to teach me through this experience. What comes next in this blog are just some notes from my time participating and an overall summary of how I view the spiritual discipline of fasting now.
Insight I gained throughout this experience included:
- When we are lacking physically, it is like losing one of our five senses. When that happens, we gain a higher awareness of our other senses (or in this case, other attributes of our being) and are able to more properly focus and train them. Attuning ourselves to be aware of more than immediate need.
- Gaining a deeper sense of peace in knowing that despite my physical lack, there was a spiritual increase.
- Helping me re-center my heart on the Lord in having gratitude in the abundance we are blessed in. When you are left with less, you can appreciate more.
- The hunger pains would physically remind me of my reasons behind the depravity and led me to think of those who might feel that way all the time.
- Drove me into healthier prayer practices which positively affected multiple areas of my life.
- Made me realize that I am not just to be dependent on God for my spiritual or emotional needs, but also for my physical and mental ones as well.
- The realization that there is room for Him to be invited into every aspect of our beings.
- Creates self-discipline.
These were the points that highlighted small revelations throughout this fast specifically, but overall I had a perspective change on fasting in general.
Firstly that it is not/ should not be restricted to religiously formal occasions. It is more relational than it is ritualistic so being open to draw closer to the Lord in this way has been really edifying.
Second, there is no “one way” to do fasting. Go by the Spirit’s leading and start off small. There is freedom in the Lord and fasting should be a reflection of our personal desire to grow, not legalistic religion.
Third, it should be pointed towards what is drawing our attention away from God. What consumes all your energy or time? Biblically the main thing people fasted from was food. Mainly because the iPhone did not exist as a distraction back then. While doing a food fast can be really edifying, I know that more often then not the real sucker of all my time is my phone. When I can get away from that, I find I am able to focus on edifying the other parts of myself (whether spiritually, creatively, emotionally, ect) that had been subconsciously numbed down. Spiritual disciplines are designed to be an act of worship to lessen ourselves in order to look more like Him. To be willing to sacrifice and surrender to the Spirit’s leading within our lives. Fasting is just one part of this and some will feel led to do it more than others, which I have had to learn is completely ok. What we should be focusing on isn’t how we perform the act itself or how often, but our intent behind it and what we are gleaning from it.
Just to reference (because this was new to me to), this is a list of the various spiritual disciplines one could explore according to Dallas Willard: prayer, silence, solitude, chastity, simplicity, fasting and meditation. Each one is uniquely complex, in its own way, and always go much deeper once you take the time to dive into them. My encouragement would be to pray into these and see if you feel prompted to pursue any more intently. Maybe you don’t and that’s totally fine, but maybe you do and so many good things come of it like it did for me. Whatever the reason the Lord knows, but don’t limit it to certain occasions or base it off what you think is a relevant need. Our reasoning is consistently flawed, and we will always find an excuse to put it off.
Quick update: we are closing up our time here in Türkiye as well as our team STCKD. Tomorrow we will be flying off to Jordan with new teams and ministry hosts. It was a long four weeks here in Ayvaçik, but the Lord was faithful and good through it all so we are very excited to hear about the happenings of our church project in the future. For now we are preparing our hearts for the most closed of country we have been to yet. This will be a big adjustment for us both culturally and spiritually, so be praying for our protection and the Lord’s guidance as we head into hostile territory.
Much Love, Tris
