Fasting, Lent, and Spiritual Awareness
By Tom Ehrich
Tom is an Episcopal pastor, writer, teacher and consultant. His nationally syndicated newspaper column is read across the US, and his daily 'On a Journey” meditations are read around the world. You can visit www.onajourney.org to learn more. Tom lives in North Carolina. He leads events in the US, Canada and Europe.

Other than mid-childhood Lenten suppers – I loved potluck meals – my most memorable Lent came when I was serving a parish north of Indianapolis. It was a spiritually intense time. I wanted to do more than the same-old. I decided on a discipline of fasting.

For six days each week, I gave up one meal a day, dinner. On the seventh day, I rested from food entirely. That Lent, instead of 21 meals a week, I ate 12. During the time of the skipped meal, I sat with my family while they ate, so that we continued to have our family meal together.

Hunger goes straight to the emotions. I felt some irritability, but more than that, a deepening, a mellowing, a vulnerability to realities around me. I saw my family with special tenderness. I was more patient with parishioners, as I sensed their humanness and neediness. I felt everything more keenly, from the sounds around me during my morning run to people's faces to my own thoughts.

I don't recall preaching or praying any differently. Fasting had its own dynamic. As Jesus discovered in the wilderness, fasting led me to unusual places, not exactly on the radar of normal parish ministry. I sat with myself more. I was quieter at the dinner table, more reflective. Even though I probably seemed withdrawn, I felt more present than ever.

When Holy Week came, I felt engaged by Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter in a deeper way, as if scales had fallen away and I understood the final days of Jesus' life. Not an intellectual understanding. More like walking beside a loved one and, without needing to say a word, feeling closer and kindlier.

What was going on? I think I was getting out of my own way. I doubt that God pays special attention to the one who is fasting. Rather, I think I was freed to pay more attention to God.

I couldn't have sustained this fasting forever. I lost weight and felt terrific, but my blood pressure dropped so low that I couldn't donate blood. The forty days of Lent were just enough.

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