End of Life Comfort

Fast for the Dying: Day 21

March 9, 2010

The final day of the 21 day Fast for the Dying.  By the numbers it looks like this:  I lost about 20 pounds, as far as I can tell mostly fat.  I lost over 3 inches on my waste, and feel very good.  I slept about 6 hours each night very soundly, woke up very refreshed.  Prior to this fast the longest I had fasted was 1 day (other than a 3 day forced fast in the wilderness – but that is another story).  I had a physician supervise my fast, and I recommend that before you undertake any fast.  My fast consisted of lots of water, 1 to 1 ½ gallons a day, small amounts of 100% juice (about 3 oz fruit juice or fruit vegetable blend, diluted 50% with water) every two hours to keep my blood sugar up.  I also drank a vitamin water, a can of V8 for lunch and had chicken or beef broth each night for dinner. 

But far more important than the numbers, this has been a good learning spiritual experience for me.  I did not have glorious visions of God, grand revelations on life.  In the words of Jantezen Franklin “fasting bring you into a deeper, more intimate, and more powerful relationship with the Lord“.  I did not feel that, instead I felt silence.  Not the silence of being ignored, but rather the silence like his presence, he is listening and waiting on me.  In some ways this was the biggest disappointment for me in my fast, and I complained about it often, going against the rules of the fast to “not complain”.  Today things came to a head with the word “irascible”.  For some reason that word has been stuck in my head, being whispered over and over like a song stuck in your mind, for the past 2 or 3 days.  I looked it up today and discovered it means ‘easily provoked to anger’.  How many times in our own lives are we irascible?  If you are a true practicing Christian all the time, that word should never apply to you.  I now realize I was hearing small whisperings that pointed to my own flaws, truths about myself that before now I was not fully conscious of.

Elijah fled for his life into the desert, and then slept under a broom tree.  An Angel brought him food and told him to get up and eat “or else the journey be to long for you”.  Elijah walked forty days and nights (fasting the entire time) to the mountains to a cave.  “Then the LORD said, “Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by.” A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD - but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake - but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake there was fire - but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.”  1 Kings 19 11-13.  It is in this whispering that Elijah heard God’s voice, not in the crushing wind, earthquake or fire.  God speaks to us in the silence of our own hearts.  It is thru this fast I have heard the truth whispered to me, and have gained strength to resist temptations. 

This Fast has taught me there is a power over yourself that you gain in fasting, and once you learn that lesson you will receive the strength to make good choices in your day to day life.  Your will must be inclined to choose properly, but with fast you gain the power to exercise that choice.  You gain the power to say no to your temporary pleasures and desires, and say yes to the things that are truly important in your life.  How often do we know the right thing to do, but instead in weak moments choose otherwise, by submitting ourselves to our passing pleasures or temptations?  Remember the will is a muscle that must be exercised, and fasting is the resistance training that your will muscle needs to become strong.  You must will to make that choice, and with the power of fasting behind you, you then have the strength to act on it.

Forgiveness is perhaps one of the hardest things to do in life, especially to those who have wrongly persecuted you.  You must incline your will to want to forgive, before the heart will forgive.  While you may have just reasons for not forgiving, those reasons really do not matter.  If you call yourself a Christian then you are called to love not only your friends but also to love your enemies, those who persecute you and your family.  In the words of Mother Teresa “forgive them anyway”.  If you are dying, you have little time left to forgive, so forgive first in your heart those who have harmed you, persecuted you.  If you have the strength, find some way to contact them, and let them know of your forgiveness.  While you are at it, ask them to forgive you as well.  But all this must come from the heart first - it must be real and heart-felt, not just empty words. 

It is in the heart that the struggle to forgive happens.  Once the heart says yes to forgiveness, then the will finds a way to make it happen.

Greg and Leigh Patterson

Paris, Kentucky