{"id":4774,"date":"2017-11-14T10:48:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T16:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=4774"},"modified":"2022-03-22T16:46:34","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T16:46:34","slug":"cheez-its-and-fasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/11\/cheez-its-and-fasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheez-Its and Fasting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you have kids, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll agree that there\u2019s always one crystal-clear memory from around the time they were born. I want to share something that happened just before my second child was born.
\nThe story starts with my wife, who is one of those women who is not going to get sent home from the hospital after showing up too early. She practically wants to see the baby\u2019s head before going to the hospital, okay? So my wife is deep into labor and it\u2019s like ten o\u2019clock at night. I know that between driving, checking in, getting to our room\u2014and then, you know, her having to give birth\u2014we\u2019re going to be up for a number of hours that will basically feel infinite. Which is fine, and beautiful, and amazing. I\u2019m ready for it.
\nAt the time we lived in a town house, and our car was parked at the top of a steep hill. I\u2019m in super-husband mode, so I go huffing up the hill to grab the car and drive it back down to our doorstep. My bride is about to have a baby, people\u2014out of my way!<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s while I\u2019m heading up to the car that one tiny little problem hits me: Man, this is going to be a loooong night. We ate dinner at five. Dang, I\u2019m hungry!<\/em><\/p>\n

I reach the car, start it up, drive it down to right in front of the door\u2014a tiny bit faster than is safe, but remember: #superhusband\u2014and then I leap out. I\u2019m doing okay on the husband thing, but I realize I could go to the next level by cleaning out the car before my wife gets in.
\nBut the back seat. Oh my goodness, there was so much food in it. Not real food, though. Toddler leftovers. Our oldest, Obadiah, was about three. We\u2019re talking enough food to feed ten squirrels for a hundred years, okay? So I start scraping Cheerios into piles with my hands, and collecting little bits of Goldfish and half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches .\u00a0.\u00a0. and then time freezes.
\nThe world becomes a single image. An artificially orange image.
\nCheez-Its.
\nThey\u2019re in a messy pile next to the car seat.
\nI\u2019m in the valley of decision. It was as if everything hung in the balance.
\nDon\u2019t you eat those, Fusco. Don\u2019t do it.<\/em>
\nI stare at them. My stomach growls. You\u2019ll get into trouble. Do. Not. Do. It. Come on, Fusco, you know\u2014<\/em>
\nBut I can\u2019t hear myself anymore over the sound of chewing.<\/strong> The Cheez-Its are tasting like manna from heaven!
\nAnd before you get all judgy, I felt like I needed to eat. I wasn\u2019t going to turn to my wife on the way to the hospital and be like, \u201cHoney, let\u2019s zip through the drive-through, okay?\u201d
\nSo I try to extract every bit of nutrition I can from those Cheez-Its. I\u2019m really going for it. And then I grab a half-empty water bottle and sort of swish my mouth out, and use my fingernail to pick out my molars. Drop a mint in my mouth. Clean car, partially fed Daniel. Win-win, right?
\nI open the front door.
\nMy wife is standing there, having a contraction. I rush to her side for support. Then through the pain, her eyes lock on mine. She looks unsure at first and then angry. Then she yells, \u201cWhat are you eating!\u201d<\/em>
\n* * *
\nWhy do I tell you such an embarrassing story? Partly because I know I\u2019m gonna get some support from my fellow floor-of-the-car eaters. Amen?
\nAnd also because self-control is such an important part of life.<\/strong>
\nSelf-control influences so many elements of a healthy life. Our diet, how hard we work, how we spend our money, the vices we choose to avoid, the people we spend time with, when we go to bed and wake up .\u00a0.\u00a0. the list is nearly endless. And all of us want to get better at either doing certain things or avoiding certain things.
\n\"\"
\nWhich makes me think we could all use some more self-control.
\nSelf-control is our capacity to override unwanted thoughts, feelings, and impulses. And it has to do with delaying gratification. If we choose not to do something in the short term in order to meet a goal in the long term, then we\u2019re practicing a certain amount of self-control.
\nWe can also call that willpower. We all have it, and we all use it. It\u2019s natural to focus on the times we don\u2019t use self-control, like when we eat that extra brownie or, I don\u2019t know, let\u2019s just say Cheez-Its off the floor of the car. But every day we use self-control in good ways, too, like when we actually get out of bed when our alarm goes off.
\nThe need for self-control is universally relevant. Not all of us struggle in every area, but all of us struggle in some area. The Bible helps us train in the area of self-control and increase the amount we have. We\u2019ll look at this later in the chapter, but let\u2019s just say there\u2019s a reason self-control is one of the fruit produced in our lives by God\u2019s Spirit.
\nGod\u2019s basic promise is that if we deny something lesser to focus on him, he\u2019ll reward us with increased self-control.<\/strong>
\nWhich is exactly what we long for, isn\u2019t it? That\u2019s the inward need in this chapter: our longing for self-control. It\u2019s not very sexy to talk about longing for self-control. Think about it. Have you ever said anything like this?
\n\u201cI sure wish I could lose ten pounds, but I can\u2019t seem to stay motivated.\u201d
\n\u201cDang, it\u2019s so hard to resist buying things online even though I know I can\u2019t afford it.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat would my life be like if I could stop doing this?\u201d
\n\u201cIf only I could add that helpful habit to my life.\u201d
\nHere\u2019s where things get weird, though. Even weirder than car Cheez-Its. Because I\u2019m not going to say that we white-knuckle our way through life or crank up the willpower to eleven.
\nWhat I\u2019m going to suggest goes against our DNA. Think about what you see on TV when they show pictures of \u201ctypical Americans.\u201d We\u2019re number one in all kinds of terrible stuff: diabetes per capita, total sugar consumed, number of fast-food restaurants, and so on. We love to eat to the point of harming ourselves. Which is why every shot of us on the evening news is taken from the waist down, from behind, and it\u2019s all junk-in-the-trunk and cankles, right?
\nAnd against that backdrop, I\u2019m going to suggest that our longing for self-control is satisfied, in part, by fasting<\/a>.
\nOuch.
\nBut why bother? Because multiple studies have concluded that lack of self-control or willpower is one of the biggest barriers to change. When we want to do something good in our lives and then we fail, it\u2019s most often because we can\u2019t control ourselves.
\nI bet your experience confirms that.
\nI know mine does!
\nFortunately, God has a ton of good news for us about fasting, and if we take it to heart, it\u2019s going to transform the way we think and live.<\/strong>
\nFasting. It\u2019s hard to think of a single word that will take the air out of a room faster. Heck, we\u2019d rather pass the offering plate around a few more times than talk about fasting\u2014let alone actually fast!
\nOn the other hand, our Bibles are absolutely packed with references to fasting, which makes for some serious cognitive dissonance.
\nLet\u2019s start simple, then, with two definitions of fasting that are brilliant. Notice how they build on each other.
\nFasting confirms our utter dependence upon God by finding in him a source of sustenance beyond food.[1]<\/a>
\nFasting, if we conceive of it truly, must not .\u00a0.\u00a0. be confined to the question of food and drink; fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special\u00a0spiritual\u00a0purpose. There are many bodily functions which are right and normal and perfectly legitimate, but which for special peculiar reasons in certain circumstances should be controlled. That is fasting.[2]<\/a>
\nThe first idea we may have heard before. We give up food, and it sucks for a while .\u00a0.\u00a0. but then, somehow, it gets better! We discover that \u201cpeople don\u2019t live on food alone,\u201d to paraphrase Jesus. We learn that God can sustain and fill us and that we literally cannot experience certain elements of God\u2019s provision when our stomachs are full.
\nBut then the second quote makes the first richer and fuller. If fasting from food is the bass line to our song, let\u2019s add in drums and piano. See, we can fast from almost anything. And when we do, for the right reasons, we\u2019ll be playing in harmony with God<\/strong>, and our minds are going to be blown!
\nRemember that we\u2019re connecting our longing for more self-control with the practice of fasting.<\/p>\n

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Click the book to read chapter one for free.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One reason we\u2019re hesitant to talk about fasting is that we lack enough self-control .\u00a0.\u00a0. or at least we think we do. But we\u2019ve actually been practicing self-control our whole lives. It starts when we\u2019re young. If you\u2019re a parent, you know that potty training is all about the exercise of self-control. The child needs to go but will hold it until there\u2019s a toilet handy. We also teach our kids not to belch in restaurants or run across the street. And it keeps going into adulthood, when we control our urge to ram our car into that yellow Hummer that just stole our parking space.
\nThis isn\u2019t fasting we\u2019re talking about, but these examples show how familiar we are with using self-control to make life better in the long run.<\/strong>
\nFasting takes that same idea and applies it specifically to our relationship with God.
\nSee, in a world full of temptations, a world where our lack of self-control is easily evident, fasting helps us learn to choose God over everything else.<\/strong> Fasting trains us to make sure our decisions reflect who we really are, not who the world wants us to be. We learn to love ourselves properly by living with God, according to God\u2019s daily invitation. Fasting helps us see that this kind of life is only possible when we chose God\u2019s best for ourselves.<\/p>\n

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You’ve been reading Daniel Fusco’s Upward, Inward, Outward: Love God, Love Yourself, Love Others.<\/em> Daniel is an expert on illustrating how Jesus is at street level with you and me. In this book he unpacks how the greatest commandment Jesus gave us is to be lived out today. We only have one life, so we need to live the most meaningful life possible!<\/p>\n