This post is for everyone who's tried to fast and messed up.
Since two posts ago I wrote about the right reasons to break a fast, today I wanted to talk about the right ways to follow through when you break a fast for selfish reasons.
Fasting is hard. I'm not the first to say that, and I definitely won't be the last. I've fasted many, many times for the wrong reasons. I've broken fasts many, many times for the wrong reasons.
And so while the worst thing we can do is sit in our guilt about it, there are some highly productive responses to mess-ups.
So what can you do in order to fall down gracefully?
1. Don't hide it.
Maybe one of the worst things you can do during a fast is break your fast and pretend like you havn't. To eat in privacy, and then tell people your fast is going great.
One time I read this article online about how a man was standing on the side of the interstate all day with a sign that said, "I cheated on my wife and this is my punishment." Um...DON'T do that. I'm not saying that you have to proclaim to the world that you broke your fast. But it is good to have accountability partners to confide in when you are weak, and if people ask, it's clearly wrong to tell them it's going great.
And, in all honesty, sometimes telling people you messed up is better ministry than saying you're succeeding. It can lead to discussions about the strength of Jesus, his 40 days in the wilderness; it can lead to conversations about forgiveness; plainly stated, it puts the gospel out there.
2. Don't give up.
You break your fast, ok. Do it again in replacement. Or, if it's a long fast, KEEP GOING. Stopping is the most heartbreaking thing you can possibly do. Think back to when we talked about how falling into sin is gradual- it's the same concept. We mess up once, so we're ok with messing up again, or loosening our standard, or even quitting.
Remember that God is way above time, so, unlike the classes I teach, make-ups for failures are completely allowed. And hey, remember that thing called perseverance we've been talking about? God wants us to keep coming back to him over and over in our prayers. So pick another time, and try again.
The definition of devotion is profound dedication. When you fall, show God you're willing to get up over and over and over again until you get it right in order to glorify Him.
3. God notices
In order to keep this blog from getting horribly long, I'll end on this note. (If you'd like to add more productive ways to go about messing up, please post comments).
God notices.
One of my favorite movies of all time is a spanish movie called Pan's Labyrinth. It has large christian motifs told through both a realistic war and fairy tales.
So there is the part where the main character, a young girl, is in a fairy tale world pursuing a quest- she must use a key to retrieve something. She is told that when she goes, she should not eat anything. When she gets there, there is a huge table with a feast set out, and as she examines the table, she plucks a few tiny grapes and eats them. When she does, this horrible monster awakens and follows her, and she barely escapes. Even then, two of her fairies get eaten by the monster.
What strikes me the most in this scene is after the fact, when she is apologizing, she says, "It was just a few grapes. I didn't think anyone would notice."
Sometimes we do really minor things like slip a few grapes when we are fasting. Sometimes we do minor things like tell a small, white lie. Sometimes we do horrible, much bigger things wrong.
But it doesn't matter. And so my point here is thank God that He notices our mistakes, because how else could He have sent his son to wash us clean?
God notices everything. He knows your soul. And because of that we all owed the same debt to Him- total. But he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross so that when he looks at us he doesn't see our mistakes or our sins anymore, he sees us as clean and beautiful and forgiven.
There is beauty in falling. There is beauty in breaking. Psalm 145 tells us that when we fall God lifts us back up. He notices us. And that's the gospel.
day 15- apple, stir fry veggies, kidney bean soup
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